Bladers to Trainers
by C.B. Magique
Summary: The G-Revolutions are raring to get started on their next championship campaign but an encounter with a strange creature puts that on hold. Its bizarre power sends Tyson, Kai, Max, Ray, Hilary and Daichi into a new dimension filled with many more unusual critters. In order to get back, they have to journey around Hoenn and learn to coexist with these weird creatures called Pokemon.
1. Journey into a New Dimension

**This is a pretty ambitious project that I've been developing on and off for the past five or six years, can't really remember. It's gone through three total revamps and I've now finally decided that it is fit to see the light of day. Arise, BeybladexPokemon crossover! Spread your wings and take flight into the sunset!**

**Please read and review! Encouragement will help me push forward (and maybe even finish it =0 *gasp*). You see, working on this story has been pretty problematic for me. The first iteration only got to 8 chapters before I scrapped it. The second only got to 5.5 and then I ditched it. Iteration 3 only has this chapter so far. It's been a hard yard trying to make this story the best it could possibly be. I ran my OC through several different Mary-Sue litmus tests and she came out clean so I hope you like her.  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade or Pokemon. I don't do this for any kind of gain whatsoever, it's just for fun.**

* * *

**Journey into a New Dimension **

Max sighed with relief and dropped himself on a park bench, spreading his arms over the back of the seat and letting his head fall back. The clean-up that had to be done after the BEGA incident had been a tough job; he'd almost thought it couldn't be done. The city had looked like a hurricane and an earthquake had struck at the same time, not to mention the bureaucracy that had to be invested in sorting out the political and economic mess left in the wake of the sudden downfall of the professional league. A month had passed and now Max's house and his father's shop were back in order but most of the city was still covered in scaffolding and canvas with trucks chugging through the city carrying load after load of debris. At least the ordeal was over and he could now go back to some kind of normal life.

He looked up to the sound of footsteps approaching at a run. He expected it to be some kids playing a chasing game but it wasn't so. Tyson, Ray, Hilary and Daichi had all come looking for him, it seemed.

"Max, we've been looking for you all morning," Tyson said, taking a huge breath and dropping himself on the bench.

"Really? Why?" Max asked with wide eyes.

"The BBA has already announced the dates for the upcoming tournaments, including next year's World Championship and you know what Tyson's like," Ray explained. "They've changed the format again too. The World Championship is a singles tournament and they've set up a separate championship for teams."

Max looked down and nodded dumbly. He could see where this was going but couldn't Tyson just let it be for a week or two? Things had only just gotten back to normal. Some things still weren't back to normal. Ray noticed the exasperated look on Max's face and asked: "Are you okay?"

Max shook his head and looked up with a smile. "Yeah, I'm totally fine."

"Well then you'd better get up and blow the dust of that blade of yours because we're starting our new training regime tomorrow at nine o'clock sharp," Hilary advised.

"Who put you in charge, hag!?" Daichi snapped.

"Why you…!"

"The team tournament is in the summer," Tyson added. "Which is soon and I wanted G-Revolution to be together for this one. What's the matter? Don't you want in?"

"Sure, just gimme time to think about it," Max replied.

A sudden gust of wind blew about them and Hilary squeaked when it blew her skirt up dangerously high. Max could have sworn he saw a pink blur rush past with the wind. Judging by Tyson and Ray's blank, blinking faces and the way they stared in the direction it went, they'd seen it too. The pink blur disappeared into the bushes before Hilary and Daichi could notice it.

"What was that all about?" Daichi wondered aloud. "That's never happened to me before."

Someone dressed in dark clothing suddenly jumped out of the tree above them. Hilary squealed when they landed right beside her and quickly stood up, being almost a whole two heads taller than her. She looked up and sighed when she realised that it was just Kai.

"Geez, way to give me a heart attack," she murmured.

"Yo, Kai," Tyson grinned, jumping to his feet. "You're joining the team, aren't you?"

Kai sniffed and ignored the question. "Have any of you seen a weird cat?"

"A weird cat?" Daichi and Hilary repeated.

"Yes, I've been chasing it all morning," Kai said. "It's the fastest cat I've ever seen."

"Exactly how is it weird?" Ray asked.

Kai hesitated to answer for a moment. "It's bright pink…"

The group all stared at Kai.

"It might have been that thing that ran into the bushes," Max said, standing up and running over to the pink thing's hiding place. Tyson and Ray got up to follow him. Hilary and Daichi exchanged confused glances. Max pushed the branches aside, finding a pink bulb with three whiskers disappearing into a purple hole that closed quickly after it.

"If that was it, it's gone," Tyson said, just to be redundant.

Another rustle from the next bush caught their attention. Max's arms dived into the bush to search through the small leaves and branches. After a few frantic seconds of wading through scratchy twigs he pulled out something red and blue that looked like a duck in some deformed way but it was featherless. It had wings and a tail but no feet. It blinked huge, eerie, round yellow eyes at the strange faces of unfamiliar humans. Max grinned and brought it back to Hilary, Daichi and Kai.

"Hey, isn't this thing cool," he said.

"That's not what I was looking for," Kai replied.

"I know, but the cat disappeared. We found this thing instead. It's awesome, right?"

"What is it?" Daichi asked, poking the red and blue thing in the beak.

"I have no idea."

"You should put it back where you found it," Hilary warned. "It might have some sort of disease or parasite on it that makes humans really ill, even if it looks healthy."

"I've got to admit, it's a pretty cool find," Ray added. "But it doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before. Do you think it's an undiscovered species?"

"I have never seen an animal that looks anything like that," Daichi argued.

"Let's take it to the animal shelter," Tyson suggested. "They'll know what to do with it."

"I think you should leave it alone," Hilary snapped.

Kai sighed and was going to leave in search of that pink cat until he noticed the blue and red thing develop a strange bluish glow. Soon that strange glow had everyone's attention and the argument about what to do with it suddenly stopped. A large purple hole unexpectedly opened up beneath them, dropping them into a swirling purple abyss. Their screams of alarm and panic were cut short as the portal closed over them, leaving not a trace of the blue and red thing or the humans it kidnapped.

* * *

A girl, no older than fifteen, lay on the soft grass of a slope under a blue sky with heavenly white clouds floating across it. She was orange-haired and sun-tanned with bright, brown eyes. Her hair was tied up somewhere under her yellow and green bandanna and on her hands she wore fingerless green gloves. She wore a yellow shirt and faded jeans with a pair of running shoes and beside her lay a little yellow and green creature with a large set of jaws on the back of its head. The dirt road behind her was deserted. The trees and grass swayed in a beautiful breeze that picked up her hair and tickled her face, yet it wasn't able to make her smile today. The strange creature turned to look at her sadly and touched her on the arm, making an unhappy whine in the back of its throat.

"Can't believe I lost before the quarterfinals of the Hoenn League… how embarrassing," the girl muttered, reaching over to pat her creature's little hand.

The creature cooed at her with a nasally voice.

"It's embarrassing because I'm the best!" the girl exclaimed, stretching out and balling her fists. "And I know I'm the best because I've done better! Way better! I can't go home like this now."

It cooed again.

"I promised my aunts and cousins that I would definitely conquer the Hoenn Pokémon League. Man, they probably saw my defeat on TV and my cousins will be laughing at me, sending all their greatest taunts to me in spirit. If I went back now it would only be worse – then they'd be taunting me in person. Damn! How could I suck so bad?"

The creature shook its head and made sharp noises in protest.

"But I lost before the finals! I didn't even make it to the Top 8. I have spent the last four years of my life training Pokémon hell bent on being the best and damn my soul to that Eternal Flying Pokémon in the sky, I will be the best! But in order to be the best I have to come out on top in the major Pokémon Leagues. You know that, I know that and my aunts and cousins know that. That's why I'm not going home until I get over that final hurdle in Hoenn!"

The creature sighed and looked up at the sky. The girl also calmed down and folded her hands over her belly, continuing the cloud watching.

"Don't really know what I'm going to do, though. It's going to be a whole year before the Hoenn Pokémon League Tournament starts up again. If I can't go back home, where am I going to go? What am I going to do for a whole year?"

The creature didn't have an answer for her there. She sighed.

"I am so bored already. There's got to be some way to entertain myself for at least one year."

The creature blinked. It suddenly jumped to its feet and pointed to the dirt road behind them, making wild exclamations. The girl sat up to turn and look at whatever the creature was pointing to.

A strong gust suddenly picked up pulling everything towards a small, dark hole. The hole grew bigger until it was the size of a sumo wrestling arena, shooting streaks purple lightning in random directions. Without warning the pulling force was reversed and six youngsters were thrown down the slope. The girl and the creature squealed and jumped out of the way before they were bowled over. The huge hole in space and time disintegrated, leaving in its wake a blue and red thing. To the girl and the yellow and green creature it looked worn out and in desperate need of some rest. As it levitated it was engulfed by another bluish glow and then teleported far away from the scene.

"Well, that was very entertaining for the thirty seconds it lasted," the girl said. She turned to the pile of limbs at the bottom of the slope. The first to pull away was the only girl of the group, a brunette in a yellow skirt. The second was a boy with a long white scarf and two-toned blue hair. The others eventually managed to detangle their arms from their legs and stood up.

"That was the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me," Tyson exclaimed.

"Touché," Max nodded. He looked around, taking in the unfamiliar landscape. "Where'd we end up?"

"Hopefully, not far away," Hilary said.

"Hello, Hilary! Does this place look familiar to you?" Daichi snapped.

"Of course it doesn't but I can hope!" Hilary growled back.

Ray scratched the back of his head and groaned quietly at the antics of those four. He turned to Kai, hoping he would shed some sanity on this situation but his attention was elsewhere. Ray followed his gaze going up the hill and saw a brunette in a yellow shirt with a green and yellow creature that looked like it had a Venus flytrap on its head. He and Kai exchanged glances. Kai just shrugged. Ray sighed, realising that the responsibility of handling this problem was being dumped on him.

"Hey, guys, there's another person here," he announced, interrupting a fight between Hilary and Daichi. Everyone turned to face him. "She might be a local or know something about what happened. I'm going to talk to her."

Ray jogged up the slope to meet her, watched inquisitively by his friends. The girl, who had been staring curiously, seemed a bit taken aback. She waved at him and smiled nervously as he approached.

"Hello, I'm Ray Kon," he said politely. It wouldn't hurt to make a good first impression. She smiled a bit more broadly at his introduction and held out a hand for him to shake.

"Nice to meet you, Ray. Name's Mari, call me Mar."

"Nice to meet you," Ray said, taking the hand she offered. She had the tough, calloused grip of someone who either worked or trained hard. "Um… I suppose you saw what just happened."

Mari nodded.

"I was wondering if you could shed any light on that as well as tell us where we are."

Mari put a finger to her cheek and pondered that for a minute. "I think your predicament has something to do with that Porygon Z that just teleported away from here."

Ray furrowed his eyebrows. "You mean that blue and red thing?"

"Yeah, that's Porygon Z," Mari confirmed. "It's extremely rare and I'm pretty sure it isn't usually found in the wild. As for where, we're currently on Route 101. The closest town is Littleroot."

Ray's eyebrows rose at the information she imparted. All of it was strange to him, in more ways than one. "Are you sure that's a real place?"

Mari frowned at him. "Yes, I'm very sure."

"Well, then could you tell us which country we're in?"

"This is Hoenn," Mari replied. She misread Ray's stunned expression and grinned. "It is a cool place. It's an island, so there are heaps of Pokémon here that don't appear anywhere else."

At this point, Ray was sure that they weren't even on Earth. "Uh… excuse me for a minute."

He turned and ran back down the slope to the others waiting at the bottom. The group immediately bombarded him with questions, with the exception of Kai. He picked a nice, long piece of grass and lay down on the slope to watch the fluffy clouds roll by and listen to the conversation at hand.

"Hey, whoa, stop asking questions all at once!" Ray exclaimed, putting his hands up in front of him. The group quieted and Ray continued: "I don't think we're in Japan anymore. Actually, I'm not even sure if we're on Earth anymore. Has anyone ever heard of a country or province called 'Hoenn'?"

He was answered with blank stares from all members of the party, even Kai.

"Somehow I didn't think so."

"You guys having a little trouble?" Mari asked, coming down the hill to meet them herself. That green and yellow creature followed her.

"Actually, we are," Tyson answered. "We need a way to get back to Japan pronto because there's a beyblade tournament coming up and we need to start training to defend our title ASAP."

"Japan?" said Mari, confused. "Beyblade? You guys drug addicts or something? Where'd you come up with that?"

The group blinked at her.

"You can't be serious," Tyson muttered, letting his jaw drop. "Are you telling us that you have never heard of the fantastic sport of beyblading?"

"Never even heard of a place called Japan and I'm a pretty well-travelled person so if a region called Japan ever existed I'm sure I'd know about it," Mari said with a tone of finality. "By the way, what's a beyblade?"

"Are you some sort of alien? How could you not know what a beyblade is?"

"Here," Kai said calmly, holding up his Dranzer. Mari crouched down to his level to study it.

"It's a spinning top…"

"It's not just a spinning top, it's a beyblade," Max corrected.

"Basically a spinning top, right?"

"Yes," Tyson interjected. "But not an ordinary spinning top. It can spin a hundred times faster than any toy spinning top and a gear can be placed inside to release a massive energy temporarily. They're very powerful tools and they're used for _sport_."

Mari nodded in understanding. "First I've ever heard of such a thing. Exactly where did you come from?"

"We came from Japan, we just told you that," Daichi said.

"I would hazard to guess that this is probably a new world; a different dimension or at least some alien planet," said Kai, "as weird as that sounds. Just look at that." He pointed to the green and yellow creature. "Have you ever seen something like that?"

Mari looked down to the creature at her side. "You mean Mawi? She's my Pokémon."

"Pokémon?" they echoed.

"Yeah, don't Pokémon exist where you come from?"

"Heck no!" Tyson said. "We have normal animals like dogs and cats and elephants."

"Animals?" Mari said, cocking her head to the side. "Are they like Pokémon?"

Tyson slapped his forehead. "Okay, this girl is not normal."

"You're pretty messed up in the head yourself," Mari retorted.

"No, you're the one who's crazy!"

"Ease up, Tyson," Max said, putting his hands on his Japanese friend's shoulders. "This is a different world. What seems pretty normal to us is probably something she would have never imagined in her life."

"That's all good and fine," Hilary said, walking out in front of Tyson and turning to Mari, "and maybe all these 'Pokémon' things aren't so bad but we need to get back to our own world. Do you think you can help us with that?"

Mari put a hand to her cheek. "That'll be really hard. You would have to find that same Porygon Z that brought you here and see if you can get it to take you back."

"What?!" Daichi exclaimed. "That exact same one? But nobody saw which direction it went in. It could be anywhere! We could still be searching for it in a year's time."

"A whole year?" Mari asked.

"Duh, that's what I said!"

A cunning smile spread across Mari's face. _"I think I just found my year's worth of entertainment."_

"Well, standing around here isn't going to help you find it, right?" said Mari, jumping up and pumping her fist in the air, suddenly full of enthusiasm. "If we travel around a bit we're bound to run into it sooner or later. I can take you through all of the sights of Hoenn, from the dizzying heights of Mt. Chimney to the deep watery caverns of Sootopolis. Sounds like a blast, doesn't it?"

The party of beybladers and Hilary looked at her strangely. Nobody made a sound until:

"Yeah, it sounds like fun," Daichi replied, eyes lighting up.

"Daichi are you out of your mind?!" Tyson yelled at him. "The new team championships are going to begin in just a few short months! We should be working on that."

"Working? Tyson, since when do you ever care for training?" Hilary asked.

"What are you talking about? I always care about my training regimes and practise schedules and we need to be in Japan training for the tournament."

"But you can't be there, isn't that the problem?" Mari appealed, heart beating fractionally faster. She just had to convince them that this was a good idea. "It's better to make the most of this opportunity while we look for that Porygon Z. That is the only way to get back after all."

Max nodded. "Besides, even if we're a whole year late, I'm sure the tournament will still be there; we'll just have to offer our condolences for not being able to make it this year and show our stuff next year. It's not like we can help it."

"But what are we going to say to our families and friends?" Ray asked. "What are they going to think if we just up and disappear without a word for a whole year? How are we supposed to call them from a different dimension?"

Max instantly paled. "Oh my God, you're right! My dad will probably have a schizophrenic nervous breakdown!"

"Sure it's not going to be that bad," Mari added, trying to placate the blond who was starting to panic. "Might think you're dead though. But that's all the more reason to get a wiggle on this adventure, right?"

"As long as there are hairdressers, malls and magazines, I don't really mind this place at all," Hilary added. When Mari didn't pull any confused faces she assumed the aforementioned objects did exist. "And I wouldn't mind having a pet with a face as cute as that one's."

Mawi posed cutely and batted her eyelashes.

"Pet? Where do you guys come up with these words? But yeah, Mawi has a very cute face," Mari agreed. "There are other cuties out there as well. My aunts have this collection of magazines at home: Pokémon Show. They have the most adorable pictures of the cutest Pokémon you've ever seen."

"At least now I know there are magazines," Hilary giggled. Tyson backed away from the group and stared at them wide eyed.

"You! What did you do to them? They've all gone psycho!" Tyson pointed the accusing finger at Mari.

"Tyson, you're the only one I can see who's going psycho," Hilary scolded. "Like Max said: if we can't make it, we can't make it. We need to find that Porygon Z and Mari's just making a suggestion that might be helpful."

"There's no reason to say that it's unreasonable," Ray added. "And if we travel around it might be easier to catch word or sight of it."

"This little Mawi dude is kind of cute," Daichi said, crouching to the Pokémon's level. "But those jaws on its head are a little creepy."

"She's a girl. If you're interested in Pokémon come with me to Littleroot Town," Mari suggested. "There's a man there who can easily outfit you with all of your Pokémon needs including a Pokémon."

Tyson pulled at his hair and growled. "We don't need Pokémon! Well, except maybe that Polygon Z-"

"Porygon Z," Ray corrected him.

"Whatever. But that's the only one we need. Look, it can't have gone far," Tyson said, shading his eyes with his hand and scouting the area. "We should start looking around here. Otherwise it'll get too far away."

"It teleported," Mari deadpanned. Tyson turned around and stared at her as if he didn't believe what had just come out of her mouth. "No telling where it is right now. Might be close but it's more likely to have gone far. It'll be easier to home in on it if we're out and about, like what Ray said."

"All we're doing is having a little fun while we're stuck here," Max said. "It's not like we're ditching our beyblades or anything."

"That is exactly right!" Mari agreed. "Come on, I'll show you the way to Littleroot Town."

Mari and Mawi led the way to the dirt road with Hilary and Daichi by their sides talking animatedly. Max and Ray followed closely behind. The only people left at the bottom of that slope were Tyson and Kai. They looked at each other.

"Kai, it's just you and me now, huh?"

To Tyson's dismay, Kai stood up, brushed off his pants and started to head up the slope quite a distance behind the others. Tyson groaned and slapped himself in the forehead.


	2. The Lab in Littleroot

**The Lab in Littleroot**

The walk to Littleroot Town took only half an hour on foot. Mari and the large party managed to arrive at the town just before lunchtime. It was a quaint little place that was almost hidden amongst the trees. There were no bitumen or gravel roads and only about five streets. All of the houses were small and made of wood and stone with sloping rooves and little chimneys on top. The grass grew short and people grew little flowers in little pots or trays in their little windows. Littleroot was – true to its name – a little town. The only thing that wasn't little was the facility on the edge of town. It was so big and dominating that it could be seen from anywhere in the town, even though it tried to blend in by having the outside clad in wood like all of the other buildings. What made it stand out even more were the three white windmills that towered high above it, spinning in the gentle breeze above the trees.

Ray took a deep breath and let it out with a satisfied sigh. "The air here is really clean; it smells good. It reminds me of my home village, in a way."

"Littleroot Town is pretty out of the way," Mari explained. "See that huge building at the end of the street? That's where we're going. It's the laboratory of the leading Pokémon researcher in Hoenn. He loves it here because the air is clean and the weather is balanced so the Pokémon are easy to study out in the field."

"So, he's like a biologist?" Hilary guessed. She heard the heavy thud of someone stomping up behind them and looked over her shoulder. Tyson was sulking at the back of the group with a huge pout and his arms tightly crossed. She giggled at his expense. "Well, look who finally decided to show up. Feeling a little alone back there, were you?"

"No!" Tyson snapped. "I came to try and talk you guys out of this insanity."

"Stop being so melodramatic," Max said, adding an exasperated sigh on the end. "Just because we're not frantically digging around for that blue and red Pokémon doesn't mean we aren't working on finding it. It's not even like you have to quit beyblading while we're doing it, we can train with each other in the meantime."

"But don't you get it Max?" Tyson exclaimed, uncrossing his arms and throwing them up in the air. "There are no other beyblades in the world! There are no tournaments, no rival teams and not even a dish! This place stinks! I'm not gonna survive in this world for a whole year."

"I can think of places worse than here," Ray said. The others nodded.

"Besides, you don't need a dish to beybattle," Daichi added.

"Well obviously Kai doesn't think so, 'cause he's gone! Or were you guys too wrapped up in your 'World of Pokémon' to realise that?" Tyson retorted.

"Was he that quiet guy at the back?" Mari asked worriedly.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about Kai," Hilary said, patting Mari on the back. "He can take care of himself."

"But if he's gone off into the forest," Mari said, "he could be in trouble. Wild Pokémon aren't as strong as trained Pokémon but if he got on the wrong side of a Poochyena or even a Wurmple that would spell bad news."

"Then we should find him!" Max exclaimed.

"But you can't go out looking for him on your own without a Pokémon," Mari gasped. "A wild Pokémon might attack and then you'll be in trouble too. We'll visit the professor at the lab first. You coming, Tyson?"

"How'd you know my name?"

"Daichi unofficially introduced it to me. Coming or not?"

* * *

Kai had wandered down a quiet street on his own accord to investigate the town. With less than ten streets to choose from, he knew it wouldn't be possible to get lost here. Having already toured most of the town in less than an hour Kai finally found a backstreet. It was completely deserted and very clean, unlike other backstreets Kai had walked before. The end of the street was a dead end but the ground there was hoed and watered and turned into a flower garden with small, flowering trees planted at the back. The colours of every flower were bold and beautiful and co-ordinated sensibly.

"Hi there!"

Kai tensed and turned around with a fist bunched, ready to punch the living daylights out of that person if they so happened to be dangerous. Standing behind him was a little girl, approximately ten years old, wearing a pink dress and a yellow jacket with her frilly white socks pulled up to her knees and yellow sandals. Her cherubic face was dotted with some freckles and her brown hair was tied up in the cutest ponytails Kai had ever seen (not that he'd admit it but it was so). In her arms she held a glass cylinder with a red and white ball on top of the golden lid and a cushion at the bottom. Sitting inside it was a white egg covered in blue and red triangles.

"Haven't seen your face in town before. New here?" she asked.

Kai raised an eyebrow.

"Think you must be. What's your name?"

Kai grunted dismissively.

"Okay, I'm Amber. You'll tell me your name now?"

Kai hesitated for a second. "Kai."

"That's a cool name. You like my garden?" Amber asked.

Kai's eyes widened at Amber. "You planted all of this?"

"Yep! I mean, living in the backstreet isn't all that cool but there was space to plant some flowers, so I did. I love it! I was so proud of my work that I entered it in a competition a while ago. I didn't win, though. The ladies from this really famous place called Pretty Petal Flower Shop won the first prize. They enter it every two years, so next year I might have a chance of winning. I won this Pokémon egg as a prize but it just doesn't seem to want to hatch."

Amber held up the case with the egg inside. Kai stared at it impassively and—oh darn, it looked like Amber was going to start talking again. He thought that maybe he should just walk away now before he got caught up in more nonsense that he didn't actually care about.

"I've been taking care of it for months since the competition but nothing's happened. Don't know how long until it's ready to hatch and I'm really eager to find out what's inside. Think maybe I need something else to make it hatch? Am I missing something?"

Kai shrugged. It wasn't like he knew anything about looking after Pokémon eggs.

"Maybe I'm not the right person. That's it! It needs the right person to hatch. Even before it's born a Pokémon knows who the right trainer for it is. Do you want it?"

"What makes you assume I'm a trainer?"

Amber grinned. "You look really strong. That's why I think you should take this egg instead and if it ever hatches for you, I hope you'll let me know what it hatched into."

Amber held out the case. Kai took half a step back and stared at her incredulously. He hadn't known this girl for more than a minute and she was already giving him a gift. He couldn't help but think how ridiculous that was! Was she stupid or just too nice for her own good?

"What makes you think I'm good for it?" Kai inquired.

"Aren't you? You don't seem like a person who'd be mean to it or mistreat it if it hatched."

The only thing stopping Kai from dropping his jaw was his pride. Here was Kai – a dark, quiet enigma that was usually given a nice, large girth when people saw him on the street – being told by someone he'd just met that he was a nice guy. Most people probably thought that he was the kind of guy who'd punch them in the face without provocation. In more ways than one, Kai found himself a bit disturbed.

"Take it, please."

Amber thrust it into his chest and Kai instinctively grabbed it. Only a fraction of a second later he realised what trick he had fallen into. Oh well, he couldn't give it back now, could he? That would be rude. Kai suddenly wondered when he'd started caring. Amber just smiled at him. Kai was about to give her a perfectly good reason as to why he couldn't look after it but she gasped and her face lit up like she'd just been presented with the hugest chocolate cake she'd ever seen.

"It moved!"

Kai looked at the egg in the case. Sure enough, in his arms it twitched a little bit. Amber giggled and clapped her hands like a toddler.

"Told you, told you!" she laughed. "Likes you more than me. When it hatches, make sure you train it up good, okay?"

Kai sighed and nodded because she clearly wasn't going to take it back now.

"Oh, here!" Amber ran up to one of her trees – one with orange leaves and pink flowers that looked like daisies – and moved away some petals and leaves, revealing a ripe, blue berry. She picked it and brought it back to Kai, holding it out to him. "This is the first Oran berry of the season. You can have this too. Hopefully the egg will hatch before it goes bad. Or give it to another Pokémon if it's hurt. I hear Oran berries can speed up a Pokémon's healing ability."

Kai was so flustered by this point that he didn't know what else to do but take it. What was he supposed to do now? "Um… thank-you…?"

"Anytime," Amber said and for a moment Kai felt that they'd been friends for years even though they'd just met. He sighed and pocketed the berry.

"I have to leave. My team might be wondering where I am."

"Team? You do double Pokémon battles?" Amber asked. "My big sister does that too. Her partner is her boyfriend from Phenac City in Orre and they're really good. I hope your team does well in battle too."

Kai nodded and couldn't help giving her a brief smile. He turned around and walked back out onto the main streets. He looked back only once to see Amber walking back into her home and the beautiful garden she grew at the dead end.

* * *

Meanwhile, within the Pokémon laboratory in Littleroot town, Hilary and the rest of the bladers stared in awe at the amazing technology surrounding them. It looked so alien and advanced. There was something to the right side of the room that was cylinder shaped with a red dome on top that looked like some kind of incubator. In the corner was a machine with a big probe-like device inside a glass chamber that could have very well been a teleportation device. There were many bookshelves that were messily stuffed with files of research notes and surprisingly few textbooks. Between them were some extra desks, each with its own computer. Some of them also had a laptop and a variety of small gadgets that they couldn't even fathom the purpose of. Most of these workplaces were cluttered with paper notes and the occasional red and white ball. A couple of them were occupied but the occupiers looked busy so nobody bothered to talk to them. The back of the lab was more lab-like, with a few desks and benches sporting scientific equipment that, while more advanced than anything on earth, were recognisable as microscopes, magnifying glasses, beakers and test tubes. There was more high-tech machinery, some fridges, a lot of cupboards and a very messy desk.

"Whoa, this looks amazing!" Max said in awe. "I can't tell what half of this stuff even is."

"This doesn't look like a very professional lab," Hilary said, wrinkling her nose at the cluttered state of most things.

"Oh, Professor Birch is very professional in his work," Mari assured them, "just not very professional in his workplace tidiness. Hope he isn't out in the field right now because that would be a letdown for you guys."

"Looking for Professor Birch?" one of the lab assistants in the room piped up. He turned around in his swivel chair. He had brown hair and eyes and was quite young, yet he seemed too old to be a mere assistant. "He went out this morning but he should be back soon. It'll be worth it to just wait here for him. Unless it's something I can help with."

Mari's eyebrows shot up to her hairline in astonishment. "Professor Oak!?"

"Professor Oak is my grandpa. Call me Gary," the young scientist chuckled while Hilary and the bladers glanced from him to Mari.

"You know this dude?" Tyson asked.

"Of course! He's from my home region; Kanto. Started my travels in his grandpa's lab where I got my official starter Pokémon."

"Yeah, I remember that," Gary said, putting his elbow on his desk and his chin in his hand. "How long ago was that? Five years? Hard to believe it's been that long already."

"I know. That first year travelling with Pokémon was super fun. It's good to see you again," Mari said, "but what are you doing here?"

"Getting Professor Birch's help for a research project I'm doing in Hoenn. And how about you guys?" Gary said, directing the question at Hilary and the bladers. "New trainers?"

"You wish," Tyson grumbled.

"We might be," Ray said, glaring disappointedly at Tyson out of the corner of his eye. "Mari said that we can get Pokémon here."

"You can help with that, can't you?" Mari asked, leaning forward a bit and giving Gary an expectant look. "Since you and your grandpa are responsible for sending Kanto trainers on their adventures."

"Sorry, the business of sending trainers off is strictly the duty of the RP." Gary smiled but looked apologetic all the same. "But if there's any info you need to know beforehand, I can answer all your questions."

Mari put a finger to her cheek. "Hm… well, what do we need?"

She looked at Hilary and the beybladers and they returned it with a confused stare.

Gary tutted. "Gee, Mar, five years on the road and you've already forgotten the basics. Naturally, the first thing you need before you go travelling is a travel document."

Mari pounded the palm of her hand. "Oh! That's right! You need to have ID."

The teens from the world of beyblades exchanged glances with one another and began to search through their pockets for anything that might be the least bit helpful. Tyson found his wallet in his back pocket with his student ID card in it. Hilary found her student ID and public transport card. Max had an American school ID card and a PPB security key. Ray only had his Resident Identity Card and Daichi had only had a beystadium backstage pass from the last World Championship. Ray held up his card for the professor to see.

"Is this acceptable ID?" he asked.

Gary stood up and went over to Ray to examine the card. He took it from Ray's hand and examined both sides. His eyebrows furrowed. "Can't even read this language. Shouldn't be a problem though because if you register at a Pokémon lab you'll have ID issued to you in the form of a Pokédex."

"A Pokédex?" Daichi echoed. "What's that?"

"It's a multipurpose device that's handed out to trainers," Mari answered, unzipping the side pocket of her red and green backpack and taking out a red gadget that looked like a PDA. "This one's mine. The Pokédex is really helpful for trainers. It stores your personal information so you can use it as ID and it also has records of all known Pokémon. If you come across a Pokémon you don't know about, you can look it up in the 'dex."

"So it's like a Pokémon encyclopaedia or something?" Ray asked.

"Yep," Gary replied. "That's the most important aspect of the Pokédex for you but it's also an important research tool for scientists who study Pokémon. We ask trainers to try to use their Pokédexes to collect information not just about any new Pokémon they see but all Pokémon and to get info on Pokémon they meet in battle with other trainers. The information needs to be reported back to us from a Pokémon Centre."

"This sounds really boring," Daichi interrupted, picking his nose disinterestedly.

"For once, I agree with Daichi," Tyson nodded.

"I think it sounds interesting," Hilary said, glaring at the two of them with her arms akimbo.

"And it's super important," Mari added. "Don't you think it's cool that you can train Pokémon and do it for science?"

"Even if you don't want to use it for research, I think it'll be a useful thing to carry around," Ray pointed out, "I highly doubt any ID we have on us will be valid around here."

"If you really want it, I can set you up with one," Gary offered.

"I thought you said you needed some 'RP' to do it or something," Max said.

"That's just for official trainer registration. Pokédex ID and data upgrades, I can do."

"Is there a new data upgrade for the 'dex?" Mari asked, holding hers out to the professor. "Can you update mine?"

"Actually, there is a small upgrade. I can do that for you while you're here."

"Gosh! What a surprise!" a big, booming, jolly voice suddenly exclaimed, startling everyone. "What're all of you youngsters doing in my lab?"

They all turned, finding a large, bearded man with brown hair that was going white at the sides walking up to them. He was wearing shorts, sandals and had a bag slung over his shoulder. His face was a bit sunburnt and he had a few scratches from some rough encounter with a Pokémon but he seemed to be generally happy and okay.

"See? What'd I tell ya?" Gary said.

"Professor Birch!" Mari exclaimed.

"He's a professor?" Tyson asked disbelievingly.

"Yes, I'm Professor Birch," Birch said happily. "Now what can I do for you kids? It'll have to be quick. I've just collected some very interesting data out in the field today of a Porygon Z and I want to analyse it as soon as possible."

"A Porygon Z?" the party exclaimed in unison.

"I knew we should have started looking around," Tyson grumbled, "instead of giving up and coming here."

"Yes! It did the most bizarre thing. It created a wormhole large and powerful enough to suck in other Pokémon. I wish it was still out there. It teleported away a while ago."

"Sounds like the Porygon Z we're looking for," Mari said. Birch gave her an inquisitive look. "We're trying to chase that Porygon Z. No telling where it could be so we decided to track it on foot but we need some Pokémon if we want to go on that kind of adventure."

Professor Birch stroked his chin. "Haven't I seen you someplace before?"

Mari blinked. "Yes… a year ago. Started off the journey to the Hoenn League right here in your lab."

Professor Birch clapped his thigh. "I remember now! You're Mari! Welcome back, Mari. How's your father doing? And your mother?"

Mari nodded. "Mom's doing fine. Been a long time since she lost a battle. Not sure exactly where dad is at the moment, but I think he's doing well. Haven't heard of any complaints or injuries yet."

"That's good to hear!" Professor Birch patted her on the shoulder. "Now, you all needed Pokémon, true?"

"They're after Pokédexes and registration too," Gary added. "I agreed to fill in the 'dexes for them, so if you guys could just give me anything that might be useful for filling it in that would be great."

Hilary and the bladers handed their ID cards to the young professor and Mari also handed in her Pokédex. Gary took the items and headed towards the back of the lab to start working on his task.

"Thanks for that, Gary," Birch said sheepishly. "I really hate the tedious work. I'll do the registration afterwards. Now, Pokémon."

"Yep! One for Tyson, one for Max, one for Ray and one for Hilary," Mari beamed.

Tyson put his hands up defensively. "No way, I don't want a Pokémon! I'm happy with my beyblade."

"Don't be stubborn Tyson!" Hilary snapped.

"What about a Pokémon for me?" Daichi exclaimed.

Birch scratched his head. "What's a beyblade?"

Tyson sighed. "I just knew it…"

"It's a little blue spinning top," Mari explained to the researcher. "But it isn't an ordinary spinning top because it's super fast and has a little gear inside to generate extra power for a little while."

"It's not necessarily blue," Ray added. "Mine's white." He took his beyblade out for all to see. Professor Birch examined it with an awestruck expression.

"And mine's green," Max said, also showing his.

"Mine's purple," Daichi said, showing off Strata Dragoon. "Only Kai's beyblade is blue but we need to find him before some Pokémon beats him up."

"He went off into the wild?" Birch asked, eyes widening in disbelief.

"We hope not," Hilary said. "We'd like to look for him but Mari suggested that we take Pokémon if we do."

"Now that's a sensible idea," Birch agreed. "I have just the thing right over here." Professor Birch pointed them all in the direction of the particularly messy table at the end of the room. The computer was sitting half-asleep (the screensaver rolled by with images of underwater Pokémon). Birch gestured for the group to follow him over to the desk and opened one of the drawers. Inside were rows of little white and red balls, each with a button on the front. He picked one up and showed it to the group. "Most of these Pokémon are official starter Pokémon for beginner trainers entering the Hoenn League."

He pressed the white button on the ball. It clicked open and a flash of white light spewed out of it. The light moulded into a bipedal, two-tailed green gecko. The beybladers and Hilary went slack-jawed.

"Whoa! How did you do that?!" Daichi exclaimed.

Birch raised a confused eyebrow. "I just let it out of its Pokéball."

"I remember Mari did something strange to her Pokémon with a ball like that," Ray noted. Mari looked at him with her head cocked to the side.

"Yeah. She didn't want to make the walk back to Littleroot so I returned her to her Pokéball. She's kinda lazy like that." Mari giggled.

Professor Birch took two more Pokéballs out of the drawer and released the creatures they contained. This time the light formed an orange chick with its head almost as big as its body and a weird blue thing with a head fin and a fin-like tail that looked like some sort of amphibian.

"These three are the official starter Pokémon for the Hoenn region," Brich said.

"Aw! They're all super cute!" Hilary cooed, crouching down to be closer to the Pokémons' level. "But there's only three of them and there's five of us."

"There are other Pokémon exactly like these three. But maybe you'd like to decide which one you want first."

Hilary looked over each of them in turn. "I don't really know… is there a difference besides what they look like?"

"Well if you don't mind, I want the blue one!" Max decided, picking up the amphibian. It blinked at him. "What's this guy called?"

"That's a Mudkip," Birch replied. "It's a water-type Pokémon."

"Why don't you start learning to use the Pokédex now?" Gary interjected, coming back to return Mari's Pokédex. "I'm done with the upgrade, so you can show them how to use it."

"Super!" Mari said, taking the Pokédex and turning to the three Pokémon. She opened it up and it came to life automatically. "Okay, you can use the Pokédex kind of like a dictionary and all of the Pokémon are listed in a certain order. You can change the order to whatever you want, like alphabetical or by type. But if you need it on the fly, it has a camera that you can point at a Pokémon and the 'dex will identify it. Like so…"

Mari aimed the camera of her Pokédex at the Mudkip in Max's hands. The response was so quick it seemed to be immediate and the screen changed to a profile on Mudkip. A mechanical voice dictated the first few sentences in the entry:

"_Mudkip, the mud fish Pokémon. In water, Mudkip uses the gills on its cheeks to breathe. If faced with a tight situation in battle it will unleash its amazing power – it can crush rocks bigger than itself!"_

"Sweet! I _really_ want this one!" Max exclaimed.

"Then what does that leave us with?" Ray muttered, looking at the gecko and the chick.

"I don't care. You take your pick Ray, I don't even want one," Tyson said.

Ray gave him a pointed look. "Don't be so negative, Tyson! You're stuck here until we find that Porygon Z, so deal with it." Ray didn't even have to take a step. The green gecko marched up to him and studied him closely, scanning him from all angles with its huge eyes. It gave a definitive nod and leaned against Ray's leg, folding its hands behind its head and crossing one leg over the other. "I think this one likes me. So, Tyson, you're stuck with the baby chicken."

Tyson looked at the orange chick. It hopped over to him and nuzzled his leg affectionately. It took all of Tyson's self-control to not melt. "Well I suppose it isn't that bad…"

"Aw, that's so cute," Hilary cooed. "Can I have one of those chicks too?"

"Certainly! I think I do have another Torchic…" Professor Birch went back to the drawer and began to search through the rows of balls. He picked one and tested the weight in his hand. "The weight feels strange but I'm pretty sure this one is meant to also be a Torchic."

He released it onto the floor of the laboratory. What formed from the bright flash of light wasn't at all like the orange chick. It was another bipedal Pokémon. This one was all white with a green helmet-like plate on its head and wide, red horns on the front and back of its head. It looked up at the people standing around it and put a tiny hand to its chin in wonder. Hilary slapped both hands to her cheeks and squealed.

"Wah! This one's so cute! Can I have it instead?"

Professor Birch furrowed his eyebrows. "I'm quite certain that should have been a Torchic. Why do I even have a Ralts?"

"It may have been your grandson's doing," Gary said, rejoining the group. "Since you were down to only those three official starter Pokémon after all of those trainers came through in the past week. I heard Ruby mentioning something about helping you out by 'restocking the Pokémon'."

"Really? Down? Huh, guess I've been too caught up in my work recently to keep track of what's going on around my own lab!" Professor Birch laughed heartily at his own expense.

"Please Professor, can I keep this one?" Hilary begged, giving him the best puppy-dog eyes she could make. "I don't care if it's not official."

"Well, I guess I'll have to let you keep her. You're not going to want to give her back, are you?"

"Nup!" Hilary giggled. "Oh, and she's a girl? That's doubly cute!"

"Hey! What about me? I want one of them!"Daichi whined. He reached into the drawer before anyone else could get a word in and pulled out a Pokéball. "How do you open these things?"

"Here, let me show you," Birch offered. "You push the button on the front twice. That's all you really require to open it. I wonder what Ruby caught in this one…"

The Pokéball snapped open and the Pokémon that appeared was unlike any of the others. For starters, it didn't even have legs! Or a body. It looked like a rock with a face and two muscular arms. Most of the beybladers were taken aback by the appearance of this creature but Daichi's eyes lit up.

"It's so cool!"

"It's so weird," Tyson muttered.

"It is not!" Daichi retorted. "What is it anyway?"

"From memory, that's called a Geodude," Mari replied, pointing her Pokédex camera at it, "but the 'dex will have all the technical info."

"_Geodude, the rock Pokémon. __Commonly found near mountain trails and in fields, people often mistake this Pokémon for rocks and step or trip on them. They swing their arms violently if disturbed. __Proud of their sturdy bodies, they bash against each other in a contest to prove whose is harder."_

"Sounds just like Daichi," Tyson joked.

"Shut up, Tyson! You're just jealous that mine is cooler than yours," Daichi said, grinning over his new Pokémon. The rock gave him a toothless grin and a huge hug.

"Well, those ones weren't so bad," Birch said. "And this is only a suggestion but if you're going to travel around Hoenn with Pokémon you might want to take up the Pokémon Gym Challenge."

"The Gym Challenge?" Max, Tyson and Daichi echoed.

"It's the greatest thing!" Mari interjected excitedly. Her eyes sparkled with excitement. "Trainers who carry Pokédexes with them are recognised as official trainers and can take part in the Gym Challenge. There are eight Pokémon Gyms in Hoenn and each gym has a Gym Leader. Defeat the Gym Leader and you earn a badge. Defeat all the Gym Leaders and collect eight badges in less than a year to qualify for the Pokémon League: a knockout tournament and the most prestigious honour to your name if you win. Win in the Pokémon League and you can then go on to take on a force known as the Elite Four – the four most elite trainers in Hoenn. Defeat them all in succession and then you can take on the Hoenn Champion! Defeating him makes you the Champion of Hoenn!"

Birch chuckled. "It's just as Mari says. Just be careful though, the gyms have certain rules determining how many Pokémon you need to have and things like substitution. You can't participate unless you fulfil the rules."

Hilary glanced at the determined expression that had suddenly fallen over Tyson's face and laughed. "I see now that there's some form of competition Tyson wants to get into it."

Tyson frowned at her. "Beyblades are still better."

The professor laughed heartily at Tyson's obstinate attitude. "It's good to see enthusiasm in young people like you. I'll bring out some Pokédexes for any of you who want to participate in the Pokémon Gym Challenge and give you the whole spiel about catching and training Pokémon."

* * *

**A/N: most people who appear in this story as incidental characters are based on Pokémon game NPCs. Amber is based on the NPC little girls in the Pokémon: Colosseum story mode. **


	3. Two for One

**Two for One  
**

Kai had, as the others had feared, wandered out of town into the forest and sat down on the bank of a small lake. The egg beside him twitched and occasionally gave off a small sound. He tried to ignore it for a while and watched the creatures of the lake. Some seagulls flew overhead but upon closer inspection they weren't really seagulls. Their bodies were too short and their wings were too straight. Every now and then a red fish with yellow crown-shaped fins would jump out of the water. Only once had he seen a little brown raccoon-like creature with zigzags instead of stripes creep out of the bushes to inspect him and then dart away. The forest behind him was filled with rustles and bizarre calls.

He gasped when he heard the thump of something hitting the ground. He turned to the egg he had been ignoring and saw two little black dogs – puppies really – playing around with it. On some impulse he didn't know he had, Kai seethed.

"Get away from that!"

He grabbed the egg case and kicked the puppies away but they were on their feet again quickly, growling and advancing on him. Kai kept a tight hold on the egg and assumed a fighting stance, letting these dogs know that he intended to fight despite having only one arm free. One of them dashed forward to tackle him down but he easily pushed it away. The other was much faster and tackled him in the stomach. Kai had all of the wind knocked out of him and with that single blow he was knocked down. He held on tightly to his egg in its case and massaged his sore abdominal muscles. For something that small those puppies were strong. He swallowed back some vomit and tried to stand up. The black puppies were creeping up on him again, growling.

"Breloom! Go!"

A red and white ball flew out of nowhere and a Pokémon was released from it in a flash of white light. It was a really strange looking Pokémon on two clawed feet with clawed hands and a long tail with green balls of… _something_ growing on it. Its head was shaped like a mushroom.

"Breloom, use Mach Punch!"

The Pokémon charged with a fist made out of one clawed hand and punched one of the black puppies with such amazing force that it was knocked out instantly. The other puppy whimpered and dragged its friend away with its tail between its legs. Kai stared in amazement.

"Hey there!"

Kai turned to the person approaching him through the forest. He was tall (taller than him, which made Kai a bit resentful) and all of his hair was tucked into a white, knitted hat with a black and green headband and long black and green clothing. He wore boots and gloves and carried with him a yellow backpack. By the joyful, earnest look on his face, Kai guessed he was another all-too-friendly resident of the nearby town of Littleroot.

"Saw you having trouble with those Poochyena," he said. "Thought I'd lend you a hand. You know, if they knock you down you can get in pretty big trouble. They can be cowardly – as you just saw – but if they realise that they can overpower you they won't give up so easily."

Kai glared at him and then turned to the Pokémon. "What's that?"

"Oh, Breloom?" said the boy. "He's one of my Pokémon. Just got back from Kanto and the Kanto Region Pokémon League. Wish I had won it."

Kai raised an eyebrow. "You're a trainer?"

"Yep! Name's Emerald. You are?"

"Kai. I'm not a trainer."

"Aspiring, aren't you?"

Kai turned to him with his eyebrows furrowed. "What?"

"You wanna be a trainer, right?" Emerald said. "You've got a Pokémon egg. When it hatches whatever's inside will be your first Pokémon."

"I wouldn't count on it hatching soon," Kai said. "What was that thing you threw?"

Emerald gave him a strange look.

"The thing Breloom came from."

"Oh, you mean the Pokéball," Emerald explained, holding out the red and white ball. "Standard equipment for a Pokémon trainer. If you don't have these you can't catch wild Pokémon and train them."

How bizarre. Kai was pretty sure that catching and containing large animals in tiny spheres was something that only happened in wild science fiction, simply because of all the conservation of mass issues. Suddenly he was curious about how this whole business with Pokémon worked out. "Explain."

"Chill! No need to snap. You wanna know how it's done? I can give you all the know-how. Breloom, return." He pointed the white button on his Pokéball at Breloom. A beam of red light shot out and engulfed the Pokémon. Breloom and the beam both entered the Pokéball as a blob of red light. "That's how you return them to their Pokéballs when your work with them is done, but to return them you need to have a Pokémon in a Pokéball and to do that, you need to catch it."

"You repeated what you said before," Kai said. Emerald blinked when he realised it. "If you're going to waste my time-"

"I'm not wasting your time! I'm going through it step-by-step," Emerald argued. "But… if you want to cut to the chase, why don't I just let you borrow a Pokémon of mine and experience it yourself." Emerald chucked a Pokéball to him. It was much smaller than the one he'd just returned Breloom to. "Press the white button once to activate it."

Kai followed instructions and the Pokéball expanded until it was the same size as Breloom's.

"Press it again and throw it. The Pokémon inside should come out."

Kai was a bit vague as to how he was supposed to throw it, but he pressed the button and tossed it straight into the air. It opened up and a bright white light spewed out, leaving a thin, dark Pokémon with a large head and diamond-like eyes. It stared at Kai confusedly.

"Now this is Sableye, one of my best," Emerald said. Sableye crossed its arms and nodded, making Emerald glare at it. "Stop acting so proud! Anyway, when you throw a Pokéball at a wild Pokémon, it might not work if it's still healthy. You'll have to weaken it or even knock it out if you want to capture it successfully."

"Are you serious? You want me to beat the crap out of a wild animal until it can't move?" Kai couldn't help muttering. Emerald spluttered and tripped over the beginning of his sentence several times while flailing his arms in an attempt to explain several excuses at once. Kai rolled his eyes and sighed. "Look, I don't actually care about the beating. Where am I supposed to find a wild Pokémon now?"

"Um… anywhere, I guess. Must be heaps in that lake."

Sableye, unable to roll its eyes, rolled its head and successfully annoyed its trainer again. Kai ignored the two of them and approached the edge of the lake with his Pokémon egg. There was a stretch of about five metres where the edge of the land just dropped straight down. The rest of it was steady shore. Kai stopped and kneeled at the edge, peering into the water. All of a sudden a white tail lashed out of the water and took him by complete surprise. With a splash, the tail disappeared along with the egg. A moment later the case reappeared without its lid, which popped up beside it, and without the egg. It sank, half full of water, to never been seen again. Kai fished out the lid, staring in disbelief at what had just happened. He looked out onto the lake as one of those red fish appeared with the egg poking out of its mouth.

Emerald suddenly burst into laughter. "Wow! Look at that tiny Magikarp! Doesn't seriously think it can eat an egg half its size, does it?"

Kai glared at Emerald with such a dark force that Emerald shut up immediately. The Magikarp moved its jaw as it tried to swallow the egg whole. All of a sudden Kai dived in; startling the fish and making it dive too. Kai's head start was enough to make sure it didn't get away. He grabbed it by the tail and flung it hard – right out of the water! He resurfaced to find that the fish was flailing around helplessly on the land but edging its way back towards the water and the egg was still in its mouth. He swam back to shore and grabbed it before it could make it all the way back to its watery home. Magikarp wasn't all too happy about that. It flailed wildly to get out of Kai's grip. Kai was even more determined not to let it go. He swung it over his head and slammed it against the ground. The egg popped out of its mouth and rolled over the grass. Kai let out a sigh and stood up, watching the fish splash around the ground. It might have been due to its size but Kai had once again underestimated the power of a Pokémon.

Emerald applauded him. "Brilliant show of strength there Kai, but how about we do it the Pokémon way now? Doesn't leave you so tired."

Kai glared at him again. "You want me to use that purple thing to catch a fish? How?"

Sableye crossed its arms and pouted, disapproving of being called a thing. Emerald sighed at the antics of his Pokémon. "Instruct it to use attacks until the Pokémon you're trying to catch is too weak to escape. As offered, you can use Sableye."

Kai stepped up to Sableye and stared it down. "Punch it," he instructed, pointing to the Magikarp. Sableye cocked its head to the side. Emerald burst into hysterical laughter, making Kai's eyebrow twitch.

"Not that sort of attack!" Emerald told him through his snickers. "Pokémon have specialised attacks. They learn attacks as they grow. Tell him to use an attack he's already learnt."

Kai just stared at Emerald. Emerald's laughter trailed off and he stared back.

"Don't know any attack that Sableye knows how to use, do you?"

Kai shook his head.

Emerald sighed. "Okay, here are four easy ones: Pound, Shadow Ball, Feint Attack and Confuse Ray. For a Magikarp, doubt you'll need to use all four."

Kai nodded and turned back to the Magikarp. It was edging closer to the egg again, hoping for lunch. Kai saw the egg twitch. "Sableye, use Confuse Ray."

Sableye's blue eyes glowed red and some almost invisible rays emitted were from the jewel-like eyes. The ray wavered and travelled directly towards Magikarp. The fish slowed down and its eyes went wide. Rather than edge towards the egg it began to flop around randomly. It occasionally hit itself in the head with its tail a few times. Kai raised an eyebrow.

"What happened?"

"It's confused, that's what Confuse Ray does," Emerald replied. "It'll just splash around and hurt itself a few times. Try to actually hurt it this time."

He thought back to the attacks he was told of. "Use Pound."

Sableye dashed towards it with a clenched fist and pounded Magikarp into the ground.

"Now… Shadow Ball!"

Before the Magikarp had a chance to react Sableye gathered a huge ball of dark energy between its hands and let it fly. It hit its mark and exploded like a bomb. After the attack Magikarp laid still, breathing but not moving voluntarily.

"Now you can throw a Pokéball at it," Emerald said.

Kai held up empty hands.

"Looks like a Pokéball to me," Emerald smirked, pointing to the lid of the egg case.

Kai looked and sure enough that red and white ball really was a Pokéball. He pulled it off the lid and pressed the button twice. He threw it at Magikarp. The Pokéball hit a bullseye and automatically opened, drawing Magikarp in. It lay in the grass for a while with a red light on the button blinking. The blinking eventually stopped and the light faded away. Emerald whooped and pumped his fist into the air.

"Congratulations. You just caught your very first Pokémon by yourself!"

Kai grunted and picked up the Pokéball. It shrunk in his hands until it reached a size where he could probably fit about ten of them in his pockets. "How does that even work?" he mused aloud.

"How does what work?" Emerald asked.

"This thing." Kai held up the shrunken Pokéball. "Whatever happened to conservation of mass? And how did it manage to change from matter into light? Moreover, how are these things able to get out without the balls exploding?"

"Um… well, that's what's so great about Pokéballs. You can carry all of your Pokémon around so easily, even big ones," Emerald said, adding a nervous laugh at the end. He had no idea what Kai was just talking about. "And if you apply to become an official trainer at the Pokémon Lab you can carry up to six of them and compete in some prestigious Pokémon battle competitions."

"Battle?"

"Yeah!" Emerald beamed, slinging an arm over Kai's shoulders. "Train your Pokémon and when they're good and strong you can send them into battle against other trainers. Aim's to win. There's a Gym Challenge too. Get all the badges and you can qualify for one of the more extreme Pokémon battle challenges: The Hoenn League!"

Kai smirked.

"Like the sound of that? C'mon, then, I'll give you the whole spiel on the way back to Littleroot."

* * *

Kai and Emerald made it back to Littleroot safely with Kai's egg snugly cradled in the crook of his arm. They approached the lab just as a large party was walking out of it in some excitement. Daichi walked out ahead of the party and stopped when he saw the two of them with the dark Pokémon beside them.

"Guys, look! It's Kai!"

The others all stopped and looked. Then, as Kai expected, they all broke into simultaneous yelling and scolding.

"Kai, where the hell did you go?"

"We were afraid wild creatures would get you!"

"You're supposed to be the role model, Mr. _Captain_!"

"Don't you know how worried we were about you?"

"Emerald!" Mari rushed out in front of the group and gave Emerald a neck-breaking, tackle hug. He only barely managed to keep his balance. "Emerald! So good to see you again."

"Mari! Been a while!" Emerald wheezed, returning the hug even though his air supply had been temporarily cut off. Mari let him go so he could catch his breath. "Looks like you and your friends were looking for this guy. Where'd you pick them up? Orre?"

"I wish!" Mari said. "A Porygon Z with a weird power brought them here from a different dimension. They have beyblades." Ray, Max and Daichi automatically pulled out their beyblades to show.

"Cool toy," Emerald said, staring at the beyblades in wonder. "Delcatty would love playing with that."

"It's not a toy!" Tyson growled, stamping up to the trainer. "It's a complicated piece of machinery used in beybattle. See? This is the reason why I hate this world."

"Tyson, will you just shut up about this already?" Hilary snapped. "Of course people in a different dimension don't understand beyblades, that's not even a surprise."

Mari giggled. "Don't mind Tyson. But Kai, we were going to get you to see Professor Birch after we found you. If you'd like to participate in the Pokémon Gym Challenge like some of your friends then there are a few things you need to be briefed on, as well as some documents you need to get."

"No big thing! I did all of the briefing on the way here," Emerald said proudly. "All he needs is a Pokédex and he's set!"

"A Pokédex?" Kai parroted.

"It's a pretty cool device," Ray said, taking his new gadget out of his pocket and showing it to Kai. "It's like an encyclopaedia for all of this world's creatures and the professors at the lab will input personal data in it for you. It's a valid form of ID and can be used as a passport and a research device."

"Useful, eh?" Emerald said, nudging Kai in the shoulder. "Don't have to worry about training him up, he's really tough. Saw him trying to take on a Magikarp with his own bare hands. Even caught it."

The party blinked.

"Wow… what's a Magikarp?" Hilary asked. Ray was already searching through the Pokédex.

"_Magikarp, the fish Pokémon. Magikarp is virtually useless in battle as it can only splash around. Because of this it is considered to be weak. However, it is actually very hardy and can survive in any body of water no matter how polluted."_

Kai's eyebrows rose. "So it's actually weak?"

"Course it is," Mari said matter-of-factly. "Though… always wished I'd had one during my travels. Gyarados are too hard to catch."

"I assume Gyarados must be powerful then," Ray said, "but how does having a Magikarp-"

"Pokémon evolution," Emerald interrupted. "Train up a Pokémon enough and it'll evolve. Weak Pokémon like Magikarp or ugly Pokémon like Feebas have the potential to grow strong and beautiful through the wonder of evolution."

"Hard to train a Magikarp but it's worth it," Mari added.

"All of this information is making my head spin," Max moaned. "Just stop telling me things! I'm still trying to process all of that information about Pokémon League and Gym Challenge rules."

"I know," Mari said. "Way too much to learn. You'll get the hang of it eventually. Try it out yourself when you're out there."

The egg in Kai's arms suddenly squeaked. Kai looked down when the egg in his arms began to wiggle more enthusiastically than before, squeaking like a baby bird. Everyone stared at it in alarm as if just noticing it for the first time. Kai held it out at arms length and watched it closely. The top part cracked perfectly around the shell. A pair of curious eyes peered out at him through the gap. A tiny pair of arms and feet also popped out of the shell. The group watched the egg with baited breath but nothing else happened. It seemed it was finished hatching even though it only looked like it was half finished. Kai removed the piece of shell on its head and blunt spikes unfurled, exuding a sweet aroma. The group blinked.

"Did that egg-thing just hatch?" Tyson said.

Hilary squealed. "That's a Pokémon too, right? It's adorable!"

"Ray, what is it?" Max and Daichi asked at the same time, looking on to Ray's Pokédex since his was the only one out.

"_Togepi, the spike ball Pokémon. The shell seems to be filled with joy. It is said that it will share good luck when treated kindly. Popular proverb claims happiness will come to anyone who can make a sleeping Togepi stand up."_

Tyson laughed. "I so can't imagine that thing with Kai. I think it should be Max's Pokémon."

Max looked up from Ray's Pokédex. "Why me?"

"It'll bring good luck if you treat it kindly. I'm sure a pretty happy-go-lucky guy like you can do that better than grumpy-face Kai can." Tyson snatched the Togepi from Kai's arms and it immediately began to wail. Tears streamed from its eyes like waterfalls and its cry was so loud that the others covered their ears and could still hear it loud and clear.

"Tyson, make it stop!" Emerald shouted over the crying.

"I don't know how!" Tyson yelled back. "Max, you try!"

Tyson tossed it to Max. Max had to uncover his ears to catch it. He winced at the piercing scream assaulting his eardrums. He tried to bounce it a little but it just squirmed and threatened to fall out of his hands. He turned to the left and thrust it into Ray's hands. Ray balked and fumbled with the Pokémon and his Pokédex. With how much the Togepi was wiggling, they were both gradually slipping out of his hands so he did the first thing that came to mind – he passed it to Daichi. Daichi had absolutely no idea what to do and gave it to Hilary as soon as it was in his hands. Hilary tried to placate it by rocking it but that didn't seem to have any effect. She looked around for someone else to try but there was nobody next to her to hand it off to. Eventually she just ran up to Kai and pushed the Pokémon into his chest. Kai put his hands up and leaned away as if he wanted nothing to do with it but Hilary insisted:

"You had the egg! It's your problem!"

Kai shook his head to refuse but the party was staring at him wide-eyed in shock. His ears were still ringing a little bit but he could tell that it was definitely quieter. He looked down. Togepi wiped huge teardrops from its face and looked up at him with a smile. Kai's eyes darted to the faces of each person in the group with a silent plea to take it away from him but their faces had all turned from being shocked to expectant. Kai slowly and hesitantly lowered his arms to take hold of the Togepi. Hilary immediately let go and jumped back as if touching it for any longer than necessary would start the ordeal all over again. So Kai stood there, awkwardly cradling a newly hatched Pokémon while it snuggled into his shirt.

"_Brrrrrrrrr_!" it cooed.

"Aw… that's kind of cute," Hilary giggled.

"What the hell just happened?" Tyson wondered.

"Oh God, why?" Max muttered. "Why did you think that was a good idea, Tyson?"

Ray toggled some buttons on his Pokédex and it answered for him: _"Togepi is unusual in that it is one of few Pokémon that remains utterly infantile until its evolution. In fact, it is so infantile that it will believe the first person or Pokémon it sees is its mother."_

That explanation only served to make Tyson snicker. "Are you serious? Kai's going to be a mommy now?!"

Kai shot him a deadly glare but it didn't seem to faze his rival.

"Haha! Oh my gosh!" Tyson guffawed. "That thing thinks you're its mom! That's just hilarious!"

Kai was about to bite back with a vicious retort but Mari got between the two of them before he could speak. "Looks like Kai has two Pokémon then. The rest of you had better catch up! Faster we get on the road the better."

"Hang on," Emerald cut in, stopping Mari in her tracks. "It's almost lunchtime. Why don't you all eat first then assemble your packs and get going a bit later? While you get Kai outfitted at the lab, I'll go around to my grandma's house and see if she minds having a few guests."

"Seriously?" Tyson and Daichi exclaimed.

"That's really nice of you to offer," Ray said. "But-"

"We are so there!" Tyson interrupted.

"Oh, Tyson. He'll never turn down free food," Hilary muttered.

* * *

**A/N: Kai... stop deconstructing the universe, just enjoy the Pokemon. Also, there is a legitimate rationale for Emerald's name** - that's the name of the main character of the Pokemon: Emerald manga. It's just Brendan in Emerald ver. garb.


	4. Running Down Route 101

**Running Down Route 101**

There was only just enough room at Emerald's grandmother's table for the eight teens. Kai had the misfortune of being sandwiched between Tyson and Daichi, Hilary sat at the end of the table next to Tyson and Mari, who had to rub elbows with Max, who sat next to Ray. Emerald's grandmother sat at the other end of the table with her grandson, wearing an orange dress and a white cardigan thrown over her shoulders. She was a delightful and generous woman with dark brown hair that was more grey than brown at this stage in her life. She'd hardly seemed astonished at all when seven teenagers appeared at her doorstep asking for lunch and invited them all in happily. In fact, Emerald's forewarning had just given her enough time to set up the table and bring down more chairs from upstairs. She even had Pokémon food for all of their new Pokémon. Tyson and Daichi devoured the lunch spread with unprecedented gusto, as usual, while everyone else gathered what they could onto their plates before those two ate it all.

"Are you sure this is alright for you?" Ray asked. "There's a lot of us and I feel kind of bad about eating all of your food without giving you something in return."

"Oh, don't worry about it at all!" the old woman beamed. "Friends of my grandson are always welcome. And you're all going on your first Pokémon adventure, that's marvellous! I remember when my son left on his first adventure. The road can be quite tough for up and coming trainers. All set for your journey?"

"We got a whole bunch of things from Professor Birch, if that's what you mean," Max replied. "He gave us all the Pokéballs we'll need and some first aid stuff. We were planning on looking around town for some camping gear and food supplies. Mari and Emerald said we'll definitely need that."

"Oh dear! That won't do at all! Look, don't worry. I had a feeling you wouldn't be quite prepared," she said, suddenly standing up and going around the table to the stairs.

"Um, we are totally prepared," Max said.

"We've got this under control, you really don't need to do more," Ray added.

"Pish-posh! It's nothing, really. Just come upstairs when you're done eating, I have a few things that I think you will find useful for your travels." With that, Emerald's grandmother disappeared to the second storey of the house. The whole group stared at her in bewilderment and then turned to Emerald, who just shrugged sheepishly.

* * *

After they'd finished lunch the group decided to go up and look for Emerald's grandmother. She hadn't come back down the entire time and nobody thought it would be exactly polite to just leave without thanking her in person. When they got to the hallway upstairs they all stopped and gawked. They couldn't move past the top of the stairs because the entire hall was filled up with an assortment of things. It all looked like… camping gear. Emerald's grandmother was at the other end of the hall rifling through a cupboard. She pulled her head out and turned to them with two armfuls of pots and pans and a camp stove.

"About time you got here!"

"Er, grandma, what is this?" Emerald asked.

"Oh, nothing, nothing! Just thought I could help you poor kids out a bit. My son used to be a big-time trainer and traveller, you see. He would somehow collect all of these things and they just ended up in storage around here. My, even I wasn't aware of how many things were actually here. Anyway, take your pick. There's sleeping bags, washing lines, rubber gloves—oh drat! There's one thing – before you leave, don't forget to drop by the store and pick up some fresh pairs of underwear. It's important that you change your underwear every day."

"Um… sure," Tyson muttered, feeling just as embarrassed as everyone else about that.

"I'm not sure if I'm alright with just taking this stuff," Max said.

"It's fine! It's fine! Brendan doesn't use this stuff anymore and he isn't going to miss it. Might as well make use of it while it's here and still in good condition."

"That's so sweet of you, Mrs Birch," said Hilary.

"Don't mention it at all. Pokémon adventures are a wonderful part of life." Emerald's grandmother sighed. "I remember what it was like to be a young adventurer too. So take what you need, it doesn't bother me at all, really."

"Seriously?" Kai snapped. The whole group turned to him in shock. He was frowning at Emerald's grandmother intensely. "You're just giving this all to us? And you don't want it back or want us to give you anything in return?"

"I just want you to have a safe journey that you're well-prepared for," Emerald's grandmother explained, quite taken aback by the sudden outburst.

"Kai, what gives?" Tyson said with an annoyed tone. "She's just being nice to us."

"Did you even think for a moment that this is a little weird?" Kai questioned, turning his sharp glare to Tyson. "She barely knows our names."

"You accusing my grandma of something?" Emerald growled at him.

"You're being a grouch," Max added, crouching down to rifle through a pile of rolled up sleeping bags. "It's not weird that some people are nice, Kai. And think about it, her son doesn't live here anymore but all of his junk is still lying around. We'd be doing her a huge favour by taking it off her hands for good. Is that enough of a motive for you?"

"Hey, hey," Mari interrupted. "Don't be like that. Mrs Birch is a good person and you can trust her, I can vouch for that. Nothing wrong with trusting people. It's something you have to do when you're on your own a lot. That's one of the biggest lessons I've learned by travelling alone."

"Funny. I'm of the opposite opinion," Kai muttered. He turned on his heel with a flutter of his scarf and headed back downstairs.

"Hey!" Tyson yelled at him. "You don't get to say stuff like that and just walk away!"

"Let him go, Tyson," Ray sighed. "You can't change his mind… or his attitude. If you chase him now you'll just start a fight."

"Maybe I should follow him and make sure he doesn't go into the woods by himself again," Mari suggested.

"Who cares? He has Pokémon now, so he should be safe, right?" said Daichi.

"A Togepi and a Magikarp," Mari reminded him with a deadpan.

"Oh, yeah. They're useless," Daichi muttered.

"Wouldn't help if he wandered off somewhere and we had to look for him again," Mari said. "You guys just worry about getting set up. Meet me later at Route 101, okay? Emerald can tell you where that is."

Mari jogged down the stairs to catch up to Kai before he disappeared somewhere.

"I guess this means we have to set up a pack for Kai too," Hilary said.

"Hey Max, see if you can find a super girly sleeping bag in that pile. We'll put it in Kai's pack," Tyson said. They both sniggered and Max started sorting through the sleeping bags more enthusiastically.

* * *

In the end, Emerald's grandmother also insisted on going to the store with them to help them shop for the extra items they would need. After that she finally let them go, telling them to take care on the road. Emerald gave them directions to Route 101 and sure enough, when they got there, Mari and Kai were already waiting for them with Togepi reclined in the crook of Kai's arm like a baby. If Kai noticed them at all he didn't show it but as soon as Mari saw them coming she perked up and gave them a big wave. The road out of town wasn't embellished with any sort of fanfare. There was just a simple sign, welcoming people to Littleroot Town. A few steps down the road there was a simple road sign with the title "Route 101" and an arrow pointing directions to "Oldale Town".

Tyson threw a blue backpack at Kai, who caught it easily with one hand. That made Tyson grumble. They couldn't find anything super girly among a collection of a boy's things so the group settled on getting their revenge by loading Kai's pack with all of the heaviest items they needed (it was Ray's suggestion, actually). However, the stoic blunette just shrugged the straps onto his shoulders without a word. Brendan had owned a surprising variety of different styles of bags. Daichi also got a double-strap backpack, Tyson and Max had gotten single-strap backpacks, Hilary's bag fastened like a belt around her waist and the only bag left for Ray was something like a cross between a duffel bag and a messenger bag.

When they were all ready to go, they joined Mari, standing at the wooden sign saying "WELCOME TO LITTLEROOT TOWN". She gazed at the road ahead of them wistfully. This really brought back memories. This was the second time she was stepping out onto this road on the way to the Hoenn Pokémon League and even though she'd already made the journey once, it felt like she was there for the first time. She knew how all of the others must be feeling. However, it was only possible for Mari to know half of it. The forest in front of them seemed serene and harmless but that road looked daunting. Hilary and the bladers all realised that stepping onto that road was a giant leap into something completely unknown to any of them.

Mari took a deep breath. Even with her experience, this was still going to take courage. "Well, this is it. The beginning of an adventure. Are you guys ready?"

She glanced at everyone in the party in turn. They all glanced at each other. All of a sudden the whole situation felt completely surreal. Well, it was surreal from the beginning but now they were about embark on a journey – possibly an entire year long – to a world that they knew essentially nothing about with bizarre creatures in their pockets. It felt like it should have been a dream. The bladers and Hilary looked ahead of them at the road stretching into the forest. It rounded a corner somewhere far up ahead and they couldn't see the end of it. Almost all at the same time they began to smile, feeling that first itch of excitement.

"Ok, let's go!" Mari suddenly cried out. "Woohoo!"

She jumped out ahead of everyone and took off running. The rest of the group started at her sudden outburst but when they realised that she was getting ahead of them, they took off running after her. They ran full pelt down the road. Littleroot Town got smaller behind them and eventually disappeared when they rounded the corner, still at a run but they didn't even think about looking back. Up ahead of the group, Mari kept her eyes forward, running down this familiar road. She didn't stop until the canopy opened up and she was on the stretch of road where she'd first met her strange new companions.

She gradually slowed to a stop and leaned on her knees to catch her breath. The rest of the group slowly caught up, starting with Max and Ray, followed closely by Tyson, then Daichi with Hilary and Kai bringing up the rear. They all took a pause to catch their breaths as well and then Tyson rounded on Mari.

"What the heck was that all about?" he exclaimed.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Mari laughed, looking down the slope she had been lying on in despair earlier that day. The slope ran down to a field that stretched away in an unbroken expanse of green to the edge of more forest.

"You just had us chasing you flat out for, like, twenty minutes!" Max complained.

"Best way to start these things is to dive in head first; kick off running," Mari said with a huge smile. "How does it all feel? You've now officially started a journey."

If anyone was going to say anything else, it died away before leaving their lips. The group sat in silence for a moment and turned to the field in front of them. Even things as common as grass and trees felt alien to them. The breeze blew through the field, making the tall grass sway.

"It feels like we have a really, really long way to go," Hilary piped up.

"I wonder what we'll get to see," Daichi muttered.

Tyson sighed and smacked himself in the forehead. "Guys! Don't forget, we're only doing this so that we can find that Pokémon that can take us back home."

"Oh? Then why did you accept a badge case from Professor Birch?" Ray asked slyly.

Tyson's face went bright red. "B-b-because," he spluttered. "You guys accepted them too!"

"Yeah, because we _want_ to do the Gym Challenge," Max replied. "Just admit it, you want to be a Pokémon trainer and join the competition."

"The only competition I want to see is in the beydish!"

"Oh, here we go," Hilary teased.

"You guys can argue and bey-fight or whatever later when we make our first camp," Mari interrupted. "We should get going. We don't have all that much time left before it gets dark and I want to show you the place where I made my first camp in Hoenn. So let's go!"

Mari took off running again.

"Hey! Wait! Why do we have to run?" Tyson yelled after her. The whole party groaned.

* * *

The light was already starting to fade when Hilary and the bladers finally managed to catch up to Mari. She had stopped in front of a large, old tree with flaky bark covered in moss. Vines hung from the branches and the canopy was thinning out but it stood alone in the forest. There was enough space around it to set up a campsite without blocking off the path. There was something else about the tree though; something grand that nobody could put their finger on. It seemed to exude some sort of magic or perhaps they were just awestruck by it.

"Wow, that tree looks really old," Ray said, looking up at the high branches. "It must be nearing the end of its life."

"Maybe," Mari replied with a shrug. "Don't know anything about it. First time I came through here I thought this tree was one of the coolest things ever. I left early in the morning, so I could have gone further but I wanted to stay next to it for a while."

"I am in favour of staying next to it right now," Hilary said, still breathing a bit heavily from the running.

"We don't really have a choice," Max pointed out. "The sun's already going down so we should set up camp now."

The others agreed and settled down beside the old tree. By the time they'd finished setting up the camp there wasn't enough light left to see by. Max and Daichi dumped a heap of firewood on a patch of ground tinted grey by previous ashes.

"Hey, do you guys have any matches?" Max asked, patting down all of his pockets as if he might have had them.

The rest of the party looked at each other. Ray smacked himself in the forehead. "Of all the things, how did we forget matches?!"

"What do we need matches for?" Mari said. "We have Pokémon, right?"

She took a Pokéball out of her pocket and released the creature inside. What came out was a tiger-striped dog-like Pokémon. "Okay, Woofy, use Ember," Mari ordered, pointing at the bundle of sticks and branches.

The Pokémon barked and fired a few small fireballs from its mouth. The firewood caught alight easily. The rest of the party gawked at it with their mouths hanging open, except for Kai. Tyson caught the impassive expression on Kai's face and stared at him incredulously.

"Why are you so calm!? Didn't you see what it just did?!"

"It just breathed fire!" Max exclaimed.

"Of course he did. Woofy is a fire-type Pokémon," Mari replied with a snicker.

"There's a kind of Pokémon called a 'Woofy'?" Ray said quizzically.

"No! That's just a nickname!" Mari snapped back.

Kai pulled his Pokédex out of his pocket and aimed the camera at the new creature. Togepi leaned forward in his arms to get a better look at the words scrolling down the screen as the entry came up. _"Growlithe, the puppy Pokémon. It is known for being extremely loyal to its trainer. It will fiercely stand up to foes much bigger and larger than itself. It also has a superb sense of smell."_

"That's cool, but nothing out of that said anything about it being 'fire-type'. What does that mean?" Hilary questioned.

"Fire is Growlithe's element," Mari answered. "There are sixteen different type elements that a Pokémon can have and they can determine what kind of weaknesses and strengths the Pokémon has in a general sense. For example, Woofy here is a fire-type. So naturally, he's weak against water. You have to be very careful around water with fire-types, especially since some are especially sensitive."

"Sensitive in what way?" said Ray.

"Well, Growlithes are okay," Mari replied. "But a Pokémon like Charizard shouldn't be getting anywhere near water if you can help it. I'll show you why."

Mari pulled another Pokéball out of her pocket and released a big, orange dragon with blue wings and a bright flame on the tip of its tail. Its piercing eyes scanned the campsite and took in the six new faces. It snarled menacingly. The bladers and Hilary backed a couple of feet away from it in a hurry. Mari jumped in front of it and patted its chest as she attempted to placate it.

"Whoa! Whoa! Chill, Charmy. They're new friends."

Kai's Pokédex once again provided the information: _"Charizard, the flame Pokémon. __Its wings can carry this Pokémon close to an altitude of 4,600 feet. It breathes intense flames that can melt anything. If it becomes furious, the flame at the tip of its tail flares up in a light blue shade."_

"That sounds terrifying! Why would you want to carry something like that around with you?" Hilary cried.

"I think it sounds awesome!" Tyson and Daichi exclaimed in unison, admiring Charmy with shiny-eyed awe.

"I agree with Hilary, this one sounds dangerous," Max said. "How is it even legal to own it?"

"Why should it be illegal?" Mari said, turning to face the party and putting her hands behind her head in a relaxed posture. "Charizards are known to be temperamental but once you get a good bond going they can be your best friends. Charmy and I have been together since my first day on the road. One of the best Pokémon I've ever had. No other could ever replace her."

Charmy made a noise that sounded like embarrassment and lowered her head to cover her face with her clawed hands. Her face was looking a significantly darker shade of orange than before.

"Anyway, point of introducing you to Charmy was to show you how—"

"The flame on its tail has to be lit constantly," Kai interrupted, reading his Pokédex. "The flame is connected to its life and if it goes out it's a sure sign that it's dying or dead. I take it that's one of the things you meant when you said that some fire-type Pokémon are especially sensitive to water."

"Hey, let the person who actually knows stuff about Pokémon explain about Pokémon," Daichi snapped. "And seriously, why do you not looked surprised at all of this crazy stuff? That little dog breathed _fire_! There is a _dragon_ standing right in front of you!"

"I can see that," Kai retorted. "Emerald's Pokémon were weirder and just looking at the ones we already have tells me that we should be expecting some pretty bizarre stuff."

"That's right, Emerald mentioned over lunch that he lent you his Sableye to catch Magikarp," Mari remembered. "Even done a bit of battling then. Wow, you really are ahead of everyone else!"

"Yeah, yeah, stop reminding us," Tyson pouted. "Kai has more Pokémon than anyone else. Hey, wait… Kai, why are you still carrying your Togepi around now that you have more Pokéballs?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Max piped up, suddenly realising the same thing. "You shouldn't have to carry it now. Why didn't you put it away?"

Kai looked down at his little baby Pokémon. Togepi looked up at him, smiled and chirped happily. "Do I have to?"

The rest of the blading group stared at him blankly, trying to work out if that little four-word sentence meant what they thought it meant. Mari just smiled, oblivious to the unusualness of the situation.

"You don't _have_ to," she said, "so long as your Pokémon is registered, which you did at the lab, but it would make it easier. Don't your arms get tired if you have to carry it all day?"

"I'm fine," Kai replied with a tone of finality.

"Suppose it's good training?" Mari said with a nervous laugh. "Speaking of which, you guys are really going to have to start seriously thinking about training up your Pokémon. First Gym along the way is in Petalburg City, which isn't really that far from here. Last time I was there, there was a three-Pokémon minimum rule too."

"Man, we're going to be pretty busy," Max groaned. "Hey Kai, how hard is it to catch a Pokémon?" Kai just shrugged nonchalantly. "That's not a helpful answer!"

"Depends on the Pokémon," Mari said. "Both your Pokémon and the one you're trying to catch. Training is the hard part. Wild Pokémon won't like you right away just because you caught them. You need to gain their trust. Of course you need to make them stronger so that they can win battles too."

"How do you train Pokémon?" Ray asked. "Is it the same as training for beyblades?"

"Don't know how to train for beyblades but anything can be considered training, I guess. Even something simple like lighting this fire is good for practising moves. I'm carrying Woofy at the moment because I want to train him up so we'll all be learning together… kind of."

"How do we know what moves our Pokémon can do?" said Kai, making his friends turn to him in surprise. After his earlier display they just assumed he would slink off and try to do everything himself like he always did.

"Ah, recently the Pokédex has featured an app called—"

"The Attackdex," Kai interrupted. "I know, I found it. I was asking how we can find out what moves our new Pokémon know right now. I don't want to hear anything I can just get out of the Pokédex."

Woofy barked and Charmy roared at him but both got a calming pat from their trainer. Hilary grumbled. "You don't need to be so rude, you know!"

"Yeah! We haven't all worked out how to use that thingy yet!" Daichi barked.

Kai just shot Daichi a dirty look and muttered: "_che_!"

"Well sorry that I got a little carried away with explaining things there," Mari retorted, placing her arms akimbo and looking annoyed. "All the registered Pokémon you carry with you have their information stored on your 'dex. Up to you to keep it up to date but the Pokémon you got from the lab should already have a list of moves they've already been trained to use. Wild Pokémon you've caught, even when registered, won't have any information on their moves. Even if they can do something that's recognisable as a move, you'll still have to train them to understand your commands. Attackdex is useful for identifying what moves your Pokémon can do and also finding out what moves it can learn. Anyway, don't worry about it now. It's dark so let's just get all of our Pokémon out and eat something before bedtime."

"Sounds good to me!" Tyson suddenly piped up, sitting up energetically. He had been lying on top of his sleeping bag lazily, stargazing and not actively listening to the conversation.

The campsite became active again as the party started to move around to prepare dinner and release Pokémon from their Pokéballs. Hilary released Ralts and she immediately looked over to where Mari was now crouched some way away from the rest of the party, releasing a pink, child-like Pokémon with short blonde hair. Ralts made a small noise that sounded concerned to Hilary. She turned to where she was looking and noticed the gloomy aura around the trainer. Hilary and Ralts exchanged a glance before deciding to walk over to their new friend. Hilary put a smile on her face as she crouched down to Mari and the little Pokémon's level.

"Oh, hey, what's this little guy called?" she said, giggling at the way its head rocked back and forth like it was trying to kiss something. "He's really cute too!"

"A Smoochum and she's a girl," Mari replied dryly, releasing Mawi next. "All Smoochums are girls but that's something you could have found in the Pokédex too."

"Well, yeah but…" Hilary said kindly, leaning forward to kneel instead. "Look, Kai's just really bad at people skills so don't worry about the things that he says. I don't care that I could have heard it from a talking robot notebook, your explanation is just as good. And when you're saying it I kind of feel less lost about everything, if you know what I mean. Like, there's someone here who knows what they're doing and I can rely on them. I wouldn't get that from the Pokédex."

Mari smiled at the kind words.

"But, aside from what it's actually called, I wanted to know what you named it. Do you give all of your Pokémon nicknames like 'Woofy' and 'Charmy'?"

"Yeah… yeah, I do," Mari said, brightening up a lot. "Having those personal names for them makes me feel closer to them in a way. This girl here is Smoochy and you've met Mawi already. Mawi is a nickname too, I forgot to explain. The actual name of the Pokémon is Mawile."

"Ah, okay," Hilary nodded. She took her Pokédex out of her pocket and opened it up. "Well, I suppose I ought to follow Kai's example and start learning how to use all the features of this thing."

The camera caught both Pokémon in the lens and brought up the articles for them one after the other: _"Smoochum, the kiss Pokémon. This energetic Pokémon actively runs about but often falls. When it does fall, it compulsively checks a reflective surface to make sure its face isn't dirty. It lips are the most sensitive part of its body. It uses its lips to examine things first."_

"_Mawile, the deceiver Pokémon. The jaws on its head evolved from steel horns this Pokémon used to have and are powerful enough to chomp through iron beams. It uses its docile-looking front appearance to lull foes and prey into complacency, then turns around and bites."_

"Whoa…" Hilary muttered, looking at Mawi with new eyes. "You're adorable but you pack quite a punch, eh?"

Mawi covered its mouth and giggled. It looked so cute doing that but this time Hilary's attention was on the massive jaws.

"Don't get nervous around her now just because of what the Pokédex said," Mari told her. "Mawi would never hurt a friend."

There was a _clash_ and _clatter_ behind them. Hilary sighed exasperatedly and stood up, brushing off her knees. "We should go and make sure those boys aren't making a total mess of everything."

Mari chuckled. Her expression had brightened up completely. She stood up too and released the rest of her Pokémon before heading back to the middle of the campsite with Hilary.

* * *

**A/N: it needs to be mentioned that "Attackdex" is actually an invention of the site Serebii (go google it), not an official Pokémon thing.** It's just a list and description of Pokémon moves, their base stats and which Pokémon can use them. I also should mention that Serebii also helps me out with the 'dex entries too. Thanks, Serebii!


	5. Tussle in the Tall Grass

**Tussle in the Tall Grass**

It was late at night – so late that it was actually early morning – and the whole campsite was dark and still. The fire had burned down a while ago and all present were fast asleep. Camping outside under the stars was a new and amazing experience for some of the bladers and certainly for Hilary. At first they thought they would never get to sleep, looking at the wonderful blanket of stars above them and listening to the strange but hauntingly beautiful sounds of wild nocturnal Pokémon. Eventually all of these things lulled them into a peaceful sleep. That's why Tyson was confused as to why he woke up in the middle of the night. He didn't need the bathroom and after lying still and listening for a while he couldn't hear anything that didn't sound ordinary (that is, nothing he hadn't heard before he fell asleep).

He lay on his back looking up at the starry sky through the tree branches. Nothing would ever beat a view like this, he decided, city lights definitely couldn't compare. He was just about to drift off again when he swore something suddenly glided in front of him. He blinked and his eyes snapped open wider but it was already gone. He sat up and looked around frantically. He could have sworn he'd just seen a little green ghost. He tilted his head to examine the tree branches. There was no wind so the leaves were silent, refusing to give up the secret of the tree's longevity.

He looked around again. Something was definitely off. It was a warm night so they'd left their Pokémon out of their Pokéballs and they were all curled up or sprawled out near their trainers. Mari's corner of the camp was particularly crowded with six Pokémon, half of them quite large too. Tyson's gaze panned around the whole camp, counting heads. There was Daichi snoring next to him, then Hilary, Mari and her Pokémon, Ray and then… Kai! Kai's sleeping bag was empty.

Tyson squirmed to get out of his sleeping bag in a hurry, unzipping it noisily. On his other side, Max stirred a bit at the noise but didn't wake. Tyson inwardly growled. Kai had probably wondered off into the wild on his own again. He picked up his jacket, belt and shoes, folded neatly in a pile beside him, and nudged his Torchic awake. The chick opened his big, adorable eyes slowly and looked up at his trainer. He made a small noise that sounded like 'peep'.

"Shhh," Tyson whispered, putting a finger to his lips. "All the other guys are asleep but Kai's wandered off again. Come on, let's go look for him."

Tyson crept away into the forest and Torchic scurried after him.

* * *

The clearing near the old tree had been nice but within the trees the forest now looked spooky. It was only a half moon so there wasn't an awful lot of light and all of the shadows looked dark and smoky. The canopy shut out most of the moonlight, making the going more difficult for Tyson and Torchic. The little chick glanced around nervously and stayed close to his trainer. It squeaked fearfully at what sounded like an owl's hoot but carried on regardless. Tyson kept his ears open for anything that sounded out of place, which in this world were most things. A loud splash was caught on his human-level sonar. He started but in end just brushed it off as some random wild animal sound… until he heard another, almost exactly the same.

"Hey, Torchic, did you hear that?" Tyson whispered, looking around for the potential source of the noise. Torchic looked up curiously. He was huddled up against Tyson's leg. "Hey, what the matter little dude? Are you scared of the dark?"

Torchic seemed to panic and shook his head frantically. However when there was a mysterious snap in the nearby undergrowth he squeaked and pressed himself against Tyson's leg. His trainer chuckled and leaned down to pet his Pokémon. "Hey, that's cool," he said comfortingly. "The first step to overcoming fear is facing it. Or we can go back if you want."

He ended up petting the chick longer that he intended to, noticing how warm the feathers were. A normal animal would surely have a fever at that temperature but Torchic seemed to be just fine. He'd bothered to check out the information on Torchic in the Pokédex and found out that he was also a fire-type like Growlithe. Tyson wondered if that meant that Torchic would eventually learn to breathe fire too. The very thought was kind of exciting. Tyson grinned despite himself but quickly shook his head. Getting too excited about this was no good, he was only here to find the Porygon Z. They had to get back to their world as quickly as possible.

Torchic cheeped and took a few steps away from Tysons's leg. He looked up at his trainer and then looked forward. It seemed that he was ready to move on now. Tyson grinned. "You're a pretty determined little guy, aren't ya?"

There was another splash and this time it was accompanied by a low voice, too far away to be heard as anything above a murmur but recognisable as human. Tyson gasped and turned in the direction that he assumed the voice had come from. "This way!" he hissed, taking off in that direction. Torchic cheeped and hurried after him.

The forest began to open up and the grass was getting longer and longer until the forest ended at another one of those grassy fields that cut through the trees like rivers. The grass here was really tall, higher than Tyson's knees and in some places even a bit taller. Roughly in the middle of this field was a small tree with a gnarled, twisty trunk and spindly branches and only boasting some clumps of leaves. Beneath that tree Tyson managed to spot moonlight shining off something blue and a long streak of white.

"KAI!" Tyson yelled across the breezy field. He ran out into the grassland with Torchic trying to keep up and scurry through the gaps he made.

Kai looked up and sighed when he spotted Tyson dashing towards him. He turned away and tried to ignore him by resuming his activity. He lifted the collapsible training ball, this time in its closed position and showed it to his Magikarp. His fish Pokémon splashed about in the empty pond beneath the tree but calmed a little when she saw that her attention was required again.

"Here's the target," Kai said clearly, holding the ball out and tossing it in the air. "Use Bounce."

Magikarp launched herself out of the water in a way that could only be described as bouncy. She hit the ball back to Kai and he caught it, still in its closed position.

"Tch," Kai muttered. He opened the ball and held it out again. "One more time. Bounce.

He threw the ball in the air again and Magikarp bounced to hit it back.

"Hey, Kai! Stop ignoring me!" Tyson shouted, grabbing one of Kai's scarf tails and tugging hard. Kai turned to him with an expression of mild annoyance, hoping to convey his disinterest in whatever Tyson wanted but the effect was ruined when the training ball bounced off the side of his head. Tyson's cheeks puffed out and he snorted. It was too much to contain and he ended up doubled over in a fit of raucous laughter while Kai glared at Magikarp disappointedly. The fish Pokémon sunk deeper into the pond and blew apologetic bubbles.

"What do you want, Tyson?" Kai snapped, picking up the ball that had collapsed. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

"And can't you see that it's the middle of the night?" Tyson retorted. "Why couldn't this wait until morning? Whatever this is."

"I'm training." Kai opened up the ball again. "You allocated all of the training equipment to my bag."

"Only because it was the heaviest stuff." Tyson smacked his hands over his mouth and watched for Kai's reaction in wide-eyed fear. Kai just shrugged and turned back to Magikarp. "But why train right now?"

"Magikarp is weak. She needs to evolve if I want to be able to make use of her in Gym Battles."

"That doesn't explain why you need to be out here now but I guess it's just because you're Kai and you're weird," Tyson said. "I mean, seriously, can't you be reasonable about things? Ever since we got here people have only been telling us about how dangerous the wild is during the day, how dangerous do you think it is at night?!"

"Who knows," Kai said dismissively, throwing the ball to Magikarp again. "Bounce."

Tyson sighed exasperatedly. "Fine, next time I'll remember not to-"

Torchic suddenly squawked in alarm, grabbing the bladers' attention. Its cover blown, a dark-furred Pokémon sprang out of the tall grass, going straight for Torchic.

"Torchic, get out of the way!" Tyson exclaimed but Torchic stood his ground and ran up to meet its assailant head on. Scratch attack went up against Tackle but the element of surprise made all the difference in the end. Torchic tumbled back towards his trainer but got back on his feet and shook it off. "I told you to get out of the way! Listen to me next time!"

Torchic turned to him with a sorry look on its face. He hung his head and made a small 'peep'.

"Hey, it's cool, man. Just be better behaved next time. What is that thing anyway?"

The grey-furred Pokémon darted back into the grass but Tyson and Kai had already gotten a good look at it.

"That's a Poochyena," Kai told him.

"A pooch-a-what?"

"I said 'Poochyena'. You haven't seen one yet but they can be really tenacious, especially if they know that they can get the upper hand," Kai explained.

"Since when are you the expert on Pokémon around here?" Tyson grumbled.

"Would you rather hear it from the Pokédex?" Kai took his Pokédex out of his pocket and pulled up the entry on Poochyena.

"_Poochyena, the bite Pokémon. This Pokémon chases after fleeing prey tenaciously but may turn tail if the prey strikes back. A distinguishing feature is how large the fangs are in relation to its body_."

"Is there anything you're not prepared for?"

"Stop being a wise-guy for a few minutes and think about the situation here," Kai said with a frown. "This little puppy has obviously decided that one or more of us is its prey and is planning to keep using ambush tactics until someone drops. We'll have to fight our way past it."

"That shouldn't be too hard. It's just one puppy."

"Yeah," Kai agreed.

Just as they'd spoken the field became alive with the eerie sound of vicious growling and mellow howling. Kai and Tyson exchanged glances with the same doomed look on their faces.

"Crap… there's a pack," Tyson muttered.

"We still have to fight."

"Are you crazy?!"

Kai gave Tyson a deadpan glare. "It would be crazier to do nothing. We're clearly surrounded. With the cover of the grass they have the option of choosing who to strike so they'll go for the weaker-looking ones."

A Poochyena leaped out of the grass, bounced off the tree and pounced on Kai's Magikarp. She splashed about in a panic while the wild Pokémon tried to gnaw into her tough scales.

"Magikarp, don't freak out!" Kai commanded. "Use Flail!"

She flailed roughly in the muddy shallows until the Poochyena was shaken off. It dizzily tried to scamper back into the grass but Kai wouldn't have any of that.

"Tackle!" he ordered. Magikarp launched herself out of the water and tackled the Poochyena from behind, sending it flying back into the grasses in an impressive arc. She splashed about on dry land until Kai picked her up and tossed her back in the pond. He smiled and petted her forehead. "Good, she remembers the commands I taught her."

"Hey, Torchic, we should pitch in too," Tyson said. His Pokémon fluffed up his downy feathers to indicate he was ready. "Give 'em your fiercest Growl attack!"

Torchic took a big breath and growled into the night. It didn't sound fierce at all, in fact it was rather cute but it seemed to work as an intimidation technique all the same, judging by the rustling of grass stalks as Pokémon fled from the area.

"Aw, yeah!" Tyson pumped his fist but it was too early to celebrate. A loud howl cut through the air and the rustling stopped. It started up again but this time it was coming closer. Tyson gulped. "Uh… I guess that was the call to rally the troops."

"They're in a bigger group that the last ones I saw, that probably gives them more confidence," Kai pondered aloud, trying to keep an eye on all of the red-eyed, red-nosed faces peeking out of the grasses one by one. That's when Kai spotted an aberration among the group; a sassier and more tenacious glowing glare that leered from a pitch-black muzzle. "Either that, or they have a really good leader."

A sharp bark announced the beginning of the charge. A small infantry charged out with ferocious fangs bared. Two of them ran at Torchic and he ran headlong at them. Tyson ordered his Pokémon to duck as the Poochyenas pounced and they collided with each other. That gave Torchic the opening to land a Scratch attack on both of them. Magikarp tackled the one that was trying to tackle her and knocked it down while Kai threw his training ball at another. It hit the Poochyena on the nose and popped open on the impact, startling the puppy-like Pokémon.

The faces disappeared back into the grasses as the attacked fled and didn't turn back. The long grass swished and rustled again, keeping them surrounded. That familiar howl went off.

"If it keeps up like this we'll be here until morning," Tyson said.

"The chance of one of us getting seriously injured also increases," Kai added. "As long as they have us surrounded and have cover they'll stay at this all night."

"Heh. I think this place could use a little mowing," Tyson quipped, winding up his beyblade and setting it up on the launcher. Kai smirked and went through the motions of assembling the parts of his beyblade and launcher. "Whenever you're ready."

"Let it RIP!" they shouted in unison, pulling the ripcords.

Dragoon and Dranzer flew into action. Blades of grass were thrown high in the air as the beyblades sliced through them, circling the clearing around the pond until all the grass within a five metre radius was mowed. It rained down on an exposed pack that was smaller than Kai and Tyson had originally thought. There were only four left. Tyson and Kai collected their beyblades and surveyed the more manageable situation. Kai locked gazes with that aberrant Poochyena.

"That's the one that attacked Torchic earlier," Kai observed.

"How can you tell?"

"I saw it. It has a black nose, all of the others are red."

The black-nosed Poochyena snarled and them and then lifted its head back to howl. The other three growled and fluffed up the hair on their tails menacingly.

"I think maybe you're right. I'm getting a strong 'leader' vibe from it," said Tyson. It ran in for a reckless Tackle attack. "Torchic, meet it with Scratch."

Poochyena got the tackle first but Torchic regained ground quickly to scratch it across the face. The others followed it in to gang-up. Kai glanced nervously at Magikarp. She couldn't do much on land so he only had one shot with this move. He just hoped it was enough to scare the others away.

"Magikarp, use Bounce," he ordered.

Sensing the seriousness of the situation, Magikarp bounced as high as she could and slammed into one of the advancing Poochyenas. It yelped and fled before it could take any more damage. The other two skidded to a halt and whimpered. Magikarp was now just floundering on the ground and Torchic seemed to be losing his one-on-one with the pack leader. Kai's eyes darted between his helpless Magikarp and Tyson's Torchic and suddenly a new idea sprang to mind, one that was ludicrous in the 'crazy enough to actually work' kind of way.

He picked up Magikarp, flung her into the air and commanded her to use her Bounce attack. Magikarp flailed to get control while airborne and once she did she knew where she was supposed to land. The pack leader crouched low and tackled Torchic in the chest, sending him rolling back to Tyson's feet. Tyson crouched down to catch his Pokémon before he rolled any farther. The Poochyena growled at him.

Tyson stood up and readied his launcher again. "You want a piece of me, puppy? I'll make you pay for what you did to Torchic!"

Except he didn't get to because Magikarp bellyflopped right on top of Poochyena. It got a dizzy swirl in each eye and fell over, unconscious. Kai seized the moment and expanded an empty Pokéball. He threw it at the black-nosed Poochyena and it was swallowed up in a flash of red. The other two ran with their tails between their legs before the outcome of the capture was revealed. The ball calmed after only a few weak twitches.

"Whoa, so that's how you catch a Pokémon," Tyson murmured as Kai claimed his prize. "You know, technically that puppy should have been mine since Torchic did most of the fighting."

"Then you should have been quicker than me," Kai replied, shrinking the ball and putting it in his pocket. He knelt down to pick up Magikarp. She also seemed to be a little out of it. He figured that throw was too high and it had come down with a bad repercussion for his Pokémon too. He took the Oran berry from his pocket and offered it. "Sorry, that move was reckless of me. You did well."

Magikarp gobbled up the berry and Kai returned her to her Pokéball. "We should call it a night," he decided, standing up and crossing his arms.

Tyson pursed his lips confusedly, wondering if the sensitive Kai he just saw and the broody Kai he was looking at now were the same person. "What was that thing you gave Magikarp?"

"Oran berry," Kai replied tersely. Yep, definitely back to being a jerk, Tyson thought. "It helps with their healing."

"You wouldn't happen to have a spare one for Torchic, would you?" Tyson asked sheepishly, picking up the chick and cradling him. The poor thing looked so beaten up.

"No. We should get some sleep before the sun rises. Let's go back."

Kai retrieved the training ball and collapsed it, then walked off while Tyson glowered at his back. "Oh yeah, sure. 'We should get some sleep,' he says and totally forgets why we're both out here in the first place." He looked down at his Torchic. "Don't worry, little guy. You get to take it easy for the next few days."

He followed Kai into the forest, hoping the blunette remembered the return route because he sure as hell didn't.

* * *

The campsite was quiet when they got back. Nobody had moved, except to turn over in their sleep. Kai checked that Togepi was still snuggled inside his sleeping bag and fast asleep before he cuddled her close and settled into his own sleeping bag. Tyson gawked at him. This whole 'Mommy Kai' thing had seemed hilarious at first but the more Tyson saw of Kai actually taking care of Togepi, the weirder it looked.

Tyson tried to put it out of his mind as he settled into his sleeping bag with Torchic deciding to crawl in with him. The night's activity had tired him out. He didn't even register the ghostly green creature hovering among the branches as his weighted eyelids closed and he fell back into slumber.

* * *

**A/N: Yay, now Kai has another Pokémon. You may have noticed that I've already started assigning genders to everyone's Pokémon. This allocation is completely arbitrary and decided randomly** (except in the case where there divergent evolutionary paths based on gender, in which case it isn't random but still fairly arbitrary).

Thanks again to Serebii and Bulbapedia for the technical info!

**Trivia notes: Kai's training ball**

There are a whole slew of Pokémon training tools, some of which I made up myself. Kai's training ball in this chapter is one such thing. It's a collapsible ball that can be opened or closed depending on the training requirements (the denser closed ball is smaller and more difficult to hit). The opening/closing mechanism also responds to strong impacts; hitting an open ball closes it and vice-versa. It's more difficult to open the ball from a closed position than it is to close the ball from an open position. That should give you an understanding of the rationale behind Kai's training in this chapter. :)


	6. Anything Goes

**Anything Goes**

Mari gaped at Kai and Tyson in an expression of absolute astonishment as they finished recounting the events of last night. They were packing up camp for the day and it was early, they still couldn't see the sun over the trees yet. Tyson presented his beaten up Torchic and Kai released the Poochyena he caught, which was still too sore to move.

"Whoa!" Mari exclaimed, looking at the Poochyena. "A black nose! That's rare." She looked at the two of them in turn and smiled. "Told you Pokémon were needed in the wild and you guys did a pretty good job, considering the odds."

"Yeah, but now I essentially have no Pokémon for the next few days, maybe weeks," Tyson pointed out.

"Nah, give a few hours with a potion and Torchic will be fine," Mari assured him. Tyson and Kai both gave her confused looks but she was already going through her bag.

"You know," Ray piped up, sitting down next to Tyson since the camp was now completely packed up, "you should have woken up the rest of us if you were worried about Kai. Things could have gone better if there were more of us."

"I wasn't worried about Kai," Tyson murmured with a pout.

"Aw, Torchic's in such bad shape. Tyson, what did you do?" Hilary snapped.

"I didn't do anything! We were just defending ourselves against that stupid Poochawena that Kai decided to catch."

"It's called Poochyena," Kai muttered darkly.

"Here," Mari announced, producing a purple and white spray bottle. She covered as much of Torchic and Poochyena's bodies as she could with the spray medicine. "You sure Magikarp is fine, Kai?"

Kai released Magikarp. She splashed about enthusiastically for a moment before Kai returned her.

"Looks like the Oran berry did help," Mari said. "Torchic and Poochyena will be okay too."

"What's that medicine you used?" Ray asked.

"This? Just a potion. We can buy some more in Oldale Town once we get there. Potions are pretty standard in a travelling Pokémon Trainer's first aid kit for healing injuries but you should only use them on Pokémon."

"I get that," Hilary nodded. "Using animal things on people and people things on animals usually yields bad results."

"Is the potion all-purpose or can you get medicine for other Pokémon ailments as well?" said Ray.

"Course! You can get Paralyse Heal, Burn Heal, Awakening – I can tell you about it all on the way to Oldale. We should get moving." Mari put away the potion and unclipped a yellow device on her belt. The bladers watched in amazement as a screen unfolded out of the quirky piece of technology and lit up. "We can make it to Oldale by dinnertime, no hurry," Mari commented, manipulating whatever she was looking at on the screen with the tracker ball.

"What is that?" Max asked, peeking over her shoulder.

"A PokéNav, of cour—oh, I forgot you guys don't really know about these things. This thing is useful for navigating the regions and keeping track of friends and achievements. Anyway, I was just checking how far away Oldale Town is from here."

"It's not very far away from here," Daichi said. "Don't tell me everything is going to be so close together like this. I want to spend more time in the forest!"

"Don't worry, Daichi. There are stretches of road that take up to a fortnight to travel without seeing a single town or city. We'll have plenty of time to camp out," Mari told him, standing up and taking her pack. "Ready to go?"

The rest of the party nodded and they left the campsite under the old tree. As they were leaving, Tyson looked back at the branches pensively. "Hey, Mari," he said. "Are there any stories or rumours about ghosts on this route?"

"Not this route but certainly on others," Mari replied. She turned to him and followed his gaze back to the tree for a moment. "Why?"

Tyson just waved it off. "It's nothing. I just thought I saw something last night, that's all."

Mari nodded and looked at the tree again, this time with a smile. "Well, okay."

* * *

The sun had climbed high in the sky and it had gotten quite warm. The group decided that now was the right time to stop for a lunch break in the shade of some trees by the side of the road. Mari checked that they were still on the right path while they ate prepacked sandwiches and relaxed. Daichi glared jealously at Kai's new Pokémon the whole time while Poochyena greedily but warily chomped down on a bowl of Pokémon food.

"Hey, what's the matter?" Tyson said, poking him in the face teasingly.

"It's no fair. Kai already has three Pokémon and the rest of us only have one," Daichi complained. "I wanna catch a new Pokémon too!"

"If you want to catch one you're going to have to find one first," Hilary said.

"How are we going to find one if we just stick to the path?" Daichi exclaimed, jumping up. "We should be in the woods exploring like real adventurers!"

"No, that sounds like a silly idea," Hilary replied. "Our Pokémon still aren't very well trained and aren't that strong. Remember what happened to Kai and Tyson last night?"

"I agree with Hilary," Mari added. "We'll have plenty of time to go through some training basics and build up strength in Oldale Town before we set of on the first real leg of the Gym Challenge."

"What do you mean by 'real leg'?" Max asked.

"Oldale Town doesn't have much for trainers aspiring to greater goals," Mari explained. "Petalburg City marks the real beginning of the Gym Challenge, you could say. It's the next town over."

"That does sound surprisingly close," Ray said.

"Not really. The Hoenn League is still a year away so there's no real rush yet. Petalburg's Gym Leader was really strong when I last faced him so it's best if we train up and aim to be in front of the Petalburg Gym in a month."

"One month!" Daichi shouted. "Are you saying you want to hang around in some dirty old town for a month?"

"It'll take a month to travel to Petalburg City if we set aside most of our time for training," Mari retorted. "Your Pokémon isn't strong enough to take on a Gym Leader yet."

"But we'll spend most of that training time in a town!"

"Course we will! It's not smart to be training heavily when you're far from a Pokémon Centre. Hilary, is he always this dumb?"

"Yep," Hilary answered.

"Hey! You're supposed to be on my side!"

"Says who?"

Daichi was so caught up in the argument that he didn't notice the creature sneaking up on his lunch. It reached out to sniff the temporarily forgotten sandwiches. Ray caught the slight movement in the corner of his eye and turned. He started at the sight of the strange creature and called to Daichi in alarm. The creature scurried into the scrub just as Daichi turned around.

Ray sighed with relief. "Just in the nick of time. It almost ran off with your food."

"Was that a Pokémon?" Daichi exclaimed excitedly, eyes shining.

"Yeah, pretty sure it was," Mari replied. "Looked like a Zigzagoon."

"Then I'm not letting it get away!"

Daichi picked up the rest of his sandwiches and shoved all of them in his mouth, a feat that made Mari look on in awe and disbelief for she had never seen someone put so much food in their mouth all at once. He grabbed his back and jumped into the bushes, ignoring calls from the others to stop.

"Seriously?" Max gaped incredulously. "He's just going to run off like that? We should follow him in case he gets into any trouble." He picked up his bag.

"Can this wait until we finish eating?" Tyson grumbled around a mouthful of food. "Daichi's like some kind of chimp, he can survive in the wild by himself for a while."

"If he gets too far away he'll get lost and we won't be able to find him," Max argued.

"Max is right," Ray agreed, packing up the remains of his lunch. "Daichi hasn't really left us much choice. You can finish eating later."

Tyson groaned but it was clear nobody was going to let him win this argument because they were all packing up and shouldering their bags.

* * *

At some point, Daichi had lost track of the Zigzagoon. It was a quick little creature and while he'd been keeping up at first it had managed to slip under his nose. He tried to track it and found plenty of similar footprints and the Zigzagoons they belonged to but he was yet to catch a single one, even with the help of his Geodude. They all fled quickly. However, he figured that if he stayed determined he would come across one that wasn't a coward and he could catch it.

Geodude floated along happily beside him as he pushed his way through the long grass and undergrowth. The greenery was getting thicker and there were fewer tracks in this part of the forest. He had no idea how long he'd been out looking for a Zigzagoon but it didn't look like he was going to find one here. The others would also be waiting for him back on the path.

Finally he sighed in defeat. "Well, that does it. It looks like we won't be catching a Pokémon today. Let's go back."

Geodude didn't seem too upset about that. He followed Daichi as the redhead started to retrace his steps but the dark mud he'd been walking in had already sunk and his footprints were gone. Not to worry, though, all he had to do was remember the trees he passed and he'd make it. Half an hour of aimless wandering later, all of the trees still looked the same and he still couldn't find the road. Yet he had managed to land himself in a less dense part of the forest, which led him to think that he was on the right track. An hour later the trees were getting sparser and the grass shorter as he entered a part of the forest that he knew he hadn't passed on the way in. Geodude tapped him on the shoulder and said something in his mellow croak. Daichi was a long way off from being able to understand when a Pokémon tried to speak to him but he could tell what Geodude was thinking since he was having the same thoughts.

They were lost.

"We're not lost," Daichi told himself, slapping himself in the face in an attempt to knock the thought out of his head. "If we just keep going, uh, this way! Yeah, this way. We'll find the path then! Come on, Geodude!"

They barged through some underbrush gracelessly but the forest didn't look any more familiar. Daichi started to chew his fingernails anxiously. What if he never found his way back? He was about to lose all hope and just start screaming into the trees when he heard the crunch and rustle of leaves and twigs being stepped on. He turned to the sound hopefully.

"Guys?"

However the person who stepped out of the undergrowth with a stomp was not a member of the group. It was a boy, slightly younger than him, wearing a white singlet top and baggy, blue shorts that matched his sneakers. He glared at Daichi under the rim of his cap and suddenly pointed at the redhead and his Pokémon. "Hey you!" he barked. "You're a trainer, aren't you?"

"So what if I am?" Daichi bit back.

The boy pulled a Pokéball out of his pocket. "I'm a trainer too. Name's Jason and it's an unspoken rule that when trainers lock gazes it's time to battle! I'll have you know that I only play to win."

"Ha! Is that so?" Daichi grinned. "Well, I don't intend to lose my first Pokémon battle. Let's go, Geodude!"

Geodude took his place in front of Daichi, letting out a battle cry to pump himself for a fight. Jason flipped his hat backwards in a well-rehearsed move like something he had copied from a celebrity and threw his Pokéball. "Go Zigzagoon!" Upon release, Jason's Zigzagoon shook out its fur and stared Daichi's Geodude down determinedly. "Use Growl attack!"

Zigzagoon's Growl was a high-pitched sound but too feral to sound adorable. Geodude fell back slightly when Jason commanded Zigzagoon to go straight in for a Tackle. Daichi quickly ordered Geodude to use Defence Curl. The tackle still knocked Geodude to the ground but when he unfurled from the tight ball Geodude hardly seemed affected.

"Yeah! We're not afraid of some cute, little raccoon-monster!" Daichi said, puffing up Geodude's confidence. "Tackle it right back!"

Geodude bowled right into Zigzagoon, knocking it onto its back.

"It's okay! Just use Tail Whip!" Jason ordered.

"Tackle!"

Zigzagoon rolled onto its front and waved its tail adorably but Geodude just rammed straight into it. Jason tried to get his Zigzagoon to do another Tackle attack and Daichi did the same. The two Pokémon collided head-on and the one with the hardest head came out on top. Geodude rubbed his forehead while the Zigzagoon stumbled from the hard hit and then collapsed.

Jason gasped. "What?! No way! Zigzagoon lost?"

Daichi laughed. "Woohoo! Victory! Me and Geodude are a pretty awesome team." He held his hand up to get a high-five from Geodude and received a rock-hard clap that sent shocks through his bones and nearly broke his hand. "Ouch…"

Jason returned his Zigzagoon to its Pokéball. "Don't celebrate yet! Not done with you."

Daichi stopped massaging his hand and looked at Jason quizzically. "Whaddya mean? I just K.O.'d your Pokémon so that means I win. What, are we supposed to do something now?"

"We're not done fighting," Jason clarified, putting his Pokéball away and getting another from his other pocket. He threw it and released another Zigzagoon onto the field. This one looked more bright-eyed and amicable that the last one. "Still have another Pokémon to take you down!"

"Hey! No fair! I don't have another Pokémon to fight that one with."

"Still have your Geodude," Jason pointed out. "In a field battle with another trainer, it's anything goes! Keep fighting until there's nothing left in you! Stripes, use Tackle!"

The Zigzagoon charged for Geodude and Geodude charged right back but this time Stripes managed to land a decent hit. Geodude reeled back and Stripes had to shake its body to relieve the ache from the hit. It growled cutely as Geodude was told to tackle it. The cuteness caught Geodude off guard and his attack didn't seem to hurt it as much as it had the other one. Stripes was ordered to use Tackle again and this time it was quick enough to land a hit without much resistance. Geodude tumbled back to the ground and groaned.

Stripes was winding up for yet another Tackle and Geodude seemed to be in trouble. Daichi chewed his lip. He needed to think of something before this more powerful Zigzagoon whittled his Geodude's strength down. As far as he could gather, Geodude only knew one other attack but Daichi had no idea how effective that would be in this battle. Then again, he didn't think that constantly being on the defensive was going to win him another battle quickly. "Geodude, use Mud Sport!"

Geodude dug his fingers into the soil and scrambled to cover himself in dirt. Something seemed to have leaked onto his skin, transforming the dirt into a thick layer of mud. Daichi's eye twitched and his jaw dropped in disappointment. "That's all it does?"

"Mud Sport?" Jason sniggered. "That's not going to do you any good here. Stripes doesn't know any electric-type moves. Tackle it, Stripes!"

The Zigzagoon charged and Daichi was suddenly struck with an idea. "Geodude, let it hit you and grab it."

Geodude glanced at Daichi in confusion but did as he was told. The two Pokémon tumbled over each other in the collision and Stripes darted away. It was covered in mud and trying in vain to scrub mud away from its eyes with muddied paws. Geodude tackled it away. Jason tried to encourage Stripes to stand again. Stripes got back to its feet and went in for another tackle but it could barely see through squinted, irritated eyes. It missed and Geodude rolled up for the most effective Tackle he'd executed. The immobilised Zigzagoon couldn't avoid getting hit in a critical spot and as it tumbled thrice onto the ground it was clear that it wasn't going to get up any time soon. Jason hesitated to return Stripes, holding onto some hope that it would surprise him by still being able to fight. However, he knew he had to abandon that hope and hung his head as he returned Stripes to its Pokéball.

"So is that it?" Daichi asked. "Are we finally done?"

"Yeah… done. You win."

"Yahoo!" Daichi exclaimed, jumping in the air and making a victory sign.

Suddenly he was pounced on by a very warm bundle of fur that yipped happily. Leaves rustled and twigs snapped as somebody rushed through the bushes, trying to keep up with their Pokémon. "Woofy! Calm down so I can—oh! Daichi."

Daichi hauled himself off the ground and shoved Growlithe off in the process. Mari came into clearing, brushing the sticks and leaves off her pants. Then she punched Daichi on the top of the head and glared at him with her arms akimbo. "What's your problem? Running off like that could have gotten you in big trouble!"

"Ow! You don't have to be so mean! I was only trying to catch a Pokémon! How am I going to beat the Petalburg Gym Leader with only one?!"

"You're an official trainer?" Jason said, making a little 'o' with his mouth.

Mari sighed. "Yes, he is. Not a very smart trainer." She and Daichi exchanged heated glares.

"Man, thought I had a chance there when you mentioned that it was your first battle," Jason muttered. "But normal-types don't do so well against a rock-type."

"What are you doing out here anyway?" Mari inquired. "Quite far from the path over here."

"I was looking for some more Pokémon to catch," Jason replied. "I was hoping to get a Poochyena but they all ran away from me. I did manage to get another Zigzagoon, though. But then I suddenly just… didn't really know exactly where I was."

"Oh, so you got lost, huh?" Daichi mocked.

Mari smacked the back of his head. "You can't talk. You're lost too. Spent hours looking for you. Catch a Zigzagoon in the end?"

"Nah. And I don't think I want to anymore. Both of his were weak." Daichi jerked his thumb in Jason's direction.

"Hey!" Jason snapped.

Mari smacked Daichi again. "Rude. First rule of trainer etiquette is that you don't disrespect each other's Pokémon. Surely both of his Zigzagoons will be more powerful later on. You only had an edge because normal-type doesn't have much effect on rock-type. Everyone's probably waiting at the rendezvous point already so we should go before we make them worry and lose more travelling time. Log the battle and then we'll go."

"Log it?" Daichi asked.

"You can log Pokémon battles in your 'dex," Mari explained. "That other trainer should have a trainer ID if he's carrying Pokémon."

"Yeah," Jason said, taking his card out of his pocket and showing it to them.

"Hey, they gave each of us one of those at the lab too," Daichi noted.

"Course they did. You need that to prove that you're qualified to train Pokémon. Trainers who don't have one will usually receive it at the end of the briefing from the Regional Professor. Get your Pokédex out, this is what you do…"

Daichi pulled the Pokédex out of his pocket and opened it up. Mari directed him to use the camera to scan the chip on Jason's card and the screen suddenly showed two portraits: one of Daichi with one Pokéball icon next to him and one of Jason with two Pokéballs.

"Good trainer etiquette, to ensure honesty, has each trainer record which of their Pokémon the other trainer managed to defeat," Mari instructed. Jason duly noted that both of his Zigzagoons were defeated and the Pokédex automatically filed that away as Daichi's win.

"Okay, great," Daichi said, closing his Pokédex and putting it away. "Now what does that all mean?"

"Logged your first battle, which means that it goes on your official Pokémon League record," Mari explained. "The Pokémon League Association uses that information to generate your trainer stats and they'll even give you a bit of money every time you win. Log all battles whenever you can, even the ones that you lose. Having accurate stats is beneficial to you as a trainer if you want to see where you really stand among others and check your progress." She turned to Jason and told him: "don't worry too much about this one. Non-official trainers are listed as anonymous on the record, so no one will ever know that it was you who lost this battle."

Jason let out the breath of relief that he didn't realise he'd been holding. It would have been embarrassing to have a defeat at the hands of a newbie officially recorded forever.

"Anyway, return your Pokémon so he can rest and let's get back," Mari said, grabbing Daichi by the back of his shirt and dragging him into the bushes. "Woofy, lead us back."

Woofy barked and jumped up to take the lead while Daichi awkwardly returned Geodude to his Pokéball. Sometimes people didn't appreciate how difficult it was for someone to do things when they were being dragged away.

"Wait!" Jason interrupted. The three that were about to leave all stopped and looked at him. "You going to Oldale Town by any chance?"

"Yep," Mari answered.

"Can I come with? All of my Pokémon are out and I can't find my way back to the road. My parents will freak out if I don't make it home tonight."

"Sure, you can come," Daichi said. "Why wouldn't we let you?"

"I don't mind taking you Oldale," Mari added. "My Growlithe can lead us back to our friends by scent, just follow us."

Jason smiled and followed them with a skip in his step, happy to finally be able to leave the forest after hours of wandering it.

* * *

**A/N: Having Pokémon fights because that is a marginally exciting thing that can happen. The explanation for how trainers get money is my own headcanon derived from the main series games**. I used to think that the money you got was from you taking money away from other trainers after you win and vice versa and that made me feel bad for other trainers (I have very little experience with losing in Pokémon, unless I'm battling a friend). Then I got older and learned more about economics and realised that, while gaining and losing money based on battles is a good in-game incentive, it doesn't make much sense in the context of an actual economy. Having your own money docked when you have the pressures of other expenses on a journey would be largely unsustainable and a disincentive for people to engage in Pokémon training, thus the trainer industry would either collapse quite quickly or become the domain of only the very wealthy, which isn't canonically consistent. The anime doesn't say anything about this (as far as I'm aware), so this chapter is how I imagine Pokémon economy works for Pokémon trainers.


	7. Arrival in Oldale Town

**Arrival in Oldale Town**

Mari may have been exaggerating about how late she was going to be. Tyson and Max were waiting by the side of the road where the group had agreed to meet. Even though they were both glad that Daichi turned out to be okay, Tyson griped about being left behind. Max pointed out that it was because their Pokémon didn't have any tracking skills that could prevent them from also getting lost. Ray and Treecko re-joined the group shortly thereafter, followed closely by Hilary and Ralts and then Kai, Togepi and Poochyena. Hilary also scolded Daichi and the group welcomed Jason to travel with them for the rest of the way to Oldale Town. Daichi spent most of the time recounting his mini-adventure in the forest and showing off the new knowledge that Mari had bestowed him with, gloating that he knew it first.

It was getting dark but Mari assured them that, according to her PokéNav, they could make it to the town if they pushed on a little further. By the time they reached the town the sun was gone, leaving only a thin streak of pale colour just above the tree line under the indigo sky. The streetlights and houselights were up but the streets were still quite dark since the area they had entered seemed semi-rural. Like Littleroot, Oldale was also a small, country town. Jason went his own way, saying he was fine and wouldn't get lost in town. They bade him farewell as he ran off and turned a corner.

They kept walking down the main street that led straight off Route 101 and kept going to the centre of town. The buildings were closer together but still low lying and sleepy and it was only marginally brighter than it was in the suburbs.

"It's too dark to do any training now," Ray said. "Can the PokéNav tell us if there's any place in town with vacancies?"

"It can," Mari replied, checking her device. "Seems like the Pokémon Centre is having a slow day. We can stay there but…" Mari switched the screen to display the time, staring at the digital numbers pensively.

"But…?" Tyson prompted.

"We need to get some more supplies before we start training tomorrow. Might be able to make it to the mart before it closes. Would be great if we could, it would save time tomorrow morning."

"Then what are we waiting for? We should go," Tyson said.

"Hold on, is it really necessary for all of us to go?" Ray wondered sensibly.

"We can split up here for a while," Max suggested. "Some of us can go and find a hostel while the others shop."

"Good plan," Mari agreed. "Anyone who wants to shop can come with me and the rest of you can go to the Pokémon Centre. It's somewhere near the town centre, easy to access. You'll find it, it's hard to miss. Just look for a big, white building with a red roof."

Mari pointed in the general direction of the Pokémon Centre. The group split up with Kai, Hilary and Mari going one way and Tyson, Max, Ray and Daichi going another. The group of four followed Mari's fairly vague directions to the town centre. They managed to find a bland town square in the middle of an intersection surrounded by market stalls. There was a farmers' market but many stalls seemed to just be there for second-hand items, trinkets and art, fuelling rural tourism and contributing to a 'trendy country town' feel that the main street had. The sellers had already started packing up for the night and the last stragglers of what had been quite a crowd during the day were leaving.

"Hey, I wonder if this market is a regular thing," Max thought aloud. "Do you think it'll be here again tomorrow?"

"I hope so," Tyson replied. "Markets like this always have awesome food."

"Just ask someone," Ray said. "And while we're at it, we should ask about the 'Pokémon Centre' too. I don't see a red roof around here."

"Me neither." Tyson looked up and took in all of the rooves of the buildings around them, none of which were red. "I thought Mari said it was near the town centre! This is obviously the centre!"

"Then it's probably nearby somewhere," Max concluded. "I'm going to ask someone." Max strolled off to a jewellery stall nearby where a woman and a teenage girl were finishing up the closing of the stall.

Tyson and Daichi nodded to the proposal and stood by to wait for Max to come back. Then Tyson suddenly blinked as if he'd just remembered something and rushed over to grab Max by the collar before he could start talking to anyone.

"Hold it! I'm not letting you go by yourself! I'm coming with."

"What? No, it's fine. I don't need someone's help to do this," Max protested.

"Come on, I know what you're gonna do in this situation. I'm coming too."

"Can I come?" Daichi asked.

"Sure."

"No!" argued Max. "I can handle it by myself."

Ray chuckled at the childish back-and-forth between his friends. A nearby rustle and twitch of movement caught his attention. He turned to the stall directly next to him. The owner was only halfway finished putting things away. It was flower and pot plant stall with a variety of plants from tiny cacti to large, leafy indoor plants. One of those plants had wide leaves that were like giant lily pads and beneath those huge leaves someone was crawling around. To Ray it looked like a small child wearing a green onesie. He smiled but cocked one eyebrow and crouched down to the child's level.

"Hey, what are you doing down there?" he asked. He moved aside a large leaf and found that the child had also put a leaf on their head. He reached over to pull it off but they felt the tug on their head they turned around. Ray was met with a red, bill-like mouth and red claws instead of a human child.

The other three bladers turned around sharply when they heard Ray suddenly scream out in pain. They quickly forgot about their petty argument and rushed over, finding Ray lying on the ground with scratches across his face.

"Ray, what happened?" Tyson asked. He helped his Chinese friend sit up and Ray immediately pointed to the weird human child look-alike.

"What is that!?" he said quickly.

A short, teal-haired girl wearing denim jeans and flannel shirt hurried over to them from the pot plants she'd been shelving. "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed. "Rudi didn't mean to hurt you, just gets very startled sometimes. Sorry!"

"Hey, don't sweat it," Max said, putting his hands up in placating gesture. "Ray's tough enough, he'll be fine."

"Seriously, what is that?" Ray demanded, standing up and staring at the Pokémon in shock. "I thought it was some kid crawling around under the plants."

Daichi captured the Pokémon on his Pokédex camera and the encyclopaedia said: _"Lombre, the Jolly Pokémon. Lombre's entire body is covered by a slippery, slimy film. It feels horribly unpleasant to be touched by this Pokémon's hands. Its features are so humanoid that it is often mistaken for a human child." _

"I take it that means you aren't the first, Ray," Tyson joked.

"Rudi helps me take care of my pot plants and the flowers I grow for the stall," the girl explained, "but that's no excuse. How can I make this up to you?"

"Like I said before, no hard feelings over here," Max said. "Ray is probably more shaken than hurt. We can patch up the scratches ourselves."

"Actually we can't," Daichi piped up.

"What?" Tyson and Max said simultaneously.

"Hilary has the whole First Aid kit in her bag, remember?" Daichi replied.

"That's okay, the Pokémon Centre isn't far from here," the girl interjected hopefully. "I can lead you there."

"Really? That's great," Tyson grinned. "We were looking for that place."

"Follow me," she said, returning her Lombre to its Pokéball and taking the group down the main street.

* * *

Meanwhile, the PokéNav was able to lead Mari's group very easily through the streets until they came across a white building with a blue roof. The words 'Pokémon Mart' were written in green print across the shop window. The white lights were still on inside but business looked slow as there were only two people browsing at the moment.

"Is this…?" Kai asked, not quite completing his question.

"The Pokémart," Mari answered. "A specialty shop for people with Pokémon, travellers too. It's a chain mart that has shopfronts in almost every town and city in the world. There're all sorts of travelling supplies and things for Pokémon, including Pokémon food, training equipment, medicine and even Pokémon League merchandise."

"Great! I haven't been here for two days and I already get to go shopping," Hilary giggled. "Or at least window shopping since I don't actually have any money."

The sleek glass door opened automatically as they stepped into the shop. Mari ran off a list of the things they needed to get before they started their training and they split up around the small store. Kai browsed the shelves, not really sure what he was looking for exactly. Mari had asked him to find some more potions and something that she vaguely called 'an anitdote'. An antidote for what, exactly? The shelf in front of him had several spray-type medicines and syringes. They were all very clearly labelled but the titles in and of themselves were very vague from his perspective. Togepi wriggled in his arms. He looked down at his baby Pokémon and also caught sight of a little girl in a blue dress with her pink hair tied in two buns on either side of her head. Her large green eyes blinked cutely and she smiled at him.

"Hi," she said. "Never seen you before. What's your name?"

What is it with these little girls? Kai wondered this and rolled his eyes.

The girl cocked her head to the side when he didn't reply. "You deaf? Mute?"

Kai's eyebrow twitched. "No."

"Why don't you answer then?"

Kai grunted and looked back at the shelves.

"I see…" the girl muttered, nodding her head and putting her thumb and forefinger to her chin. "Don't like strangers, eh? Well, I'm Miki and I'm nine years old. There! Not a stranger anymore."

Kai still wasn't sure how this logic worked. The people in Littleroot also used the philosophy that this 'Miki' used. "Fine… I'm Kai."

"Kai? Cool name," Miki said. "You have the best balance: coolness and cuteness and toughness and smartness and beauty."

Kai tilted his head to the side slightly and gave her a puzzled look.

"You got a cool name and a cute Pokémon," Miki explained. "Cute nose too! You look tough and your eyes show smartness. Your face and hair are really pretty too. If you were a Pokémon you'd be the ultimate contest Pokémon."

"You're another person who likes Pokémon?" Kai said.

"Think everyone likes Pokémon," Miki replied. "Don't know anyone who doesn't. When I finally get my first Pokémon, I'm going to train it to enter contests. Wish I had a cute Pokémon like your Togepi though, then it would be a cinch!"

Kai looked at his Togepi again. She looked up at him and smiled. She suddenly giggled for no reason and waved her arms about, wiggling around and making it harder for Kai to keep a good grip. Miki also giggled.

"That's a cute Pokémon if I ever saw one. You gonna train it up for something special?" she asked.

Kai looked away, thinking about it. His only other Pokémon were a largely useless fish and a puppy that he didn't yet know the capabilities of. As it stood, Togepi barely even knew how to walk since he carried her around all the time. At this stage, aiming for the Gym Challenge and the League didn't sound practical.

"I suppose," he eventually replied.

"What?"

Damn, these people sure were nosey. "For battle. I'm going to participate in the Gym Challenge."

Miki's eyes lit up. "Really? Amazing! Must be collecting Pokémon to have in your party too. How many do you have?"

"Three."

"Show us the other ones! Please!"

Kai sighed. On one hand he didn't really want to give into the demands of a child to spite her but he was also bored and wasn't making any headway with these Pokémon medicines. He took out his Pokéballs and released Magikarp and Poochyena anyway. Magikarp did nothing except flop around with that dumbfounded expression she always had. Poochyena tensed up and backed into Kai's leg with her tail between her legs, looking around the strange new environment fearfully. They both appeared so pathetic in this light but Miki didn't seem unimpressed by that.

"Awesome! Magikarp's so tiny but she looks so energetic. She'll be a wicked Gyarados when she evolves," Miki said. "And Poochyena looks really tough. Great if you want to challenge Gym Leaders. You need powerful Pokémon to win."

"You know all about this?"

Miki nodded. "Used to want to train Pokémon myself but now I'd rather be a coordinator. Closest Gym is in Petalburg City but you need three Pokémon to challenge it. You're pretty set, all you need is to make them strong."

Kai returned his Pokémon and started to actually examine the products on the shelves, wishing the girl would go away. Miki continued, as if Kai wasn't trying to ignore her. "Yep, got the feeling you're gonna be a really good trainer. I want you to have this thing…"

Kai turned to her again and she held out a thin case with a stylised blue Pokéball shape on the lid. Togepi grabbed it before he even considered touching it and flipped off the hinged lid. Inside was soft padding and eight spaces for holding badges. Kai eyed her suspiciously. That was the second time a stranger had given him something completely free of charges and conditions.

"Don't want to be a trainer, so I don't need that. Every time you get a badge from a Gym Leader you can keep them in the badge case. I'll make sure to watch you in the Pokémon League."

"You won't even remember me," Kai assured her.

"Yeah I will," Miki retorted. "How can I forget you? You could have been the ultimate contest Pokémon!"

Kai snorted.

"Don't say it! I know you'll make it to the Pokémon League. I'm gonna help." Miki took a white box with a picture of a burgundy serum inside a syringe off the shelf and paid for it at the counter. She returned promptly and forced Kai to take it. "Use that anitdote if your Pokémon get poisoned somewhere out in the wild. Poisoning sometimes heals itself but if it doesn't and your Pokémon faint somewhere far from a Pokémon Centre it'll take a long time for them to recover. Good luck on your journey to the Pokémon League."

Kai just nodded, unable to think of something reasonable to do or say other than two words he used so rarely: "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Miki smiled. "Better go, though. It's already dark and mom'll be worried about me. See you at the Pokémon League."

Miki skipped out of the store and waved back at him through the glass door. Kai watched her skip out of sight behind the wall and then looked down at the gifts she gave him.

"Make a new friend?"

Kai's head snapped up to meet Mari. She grinned, carrying two armfuls of supplies for Pokémon care. He looked around to see if he could find Hilary anywhere. She was checking out the Pokémon League clothing merchandise while holding her share of items in one arm.

"Come on, all we need is the medicine then we can meet everyone at the Pokémon Centre."

Kai just nodded and put his antidote away in his bag. Then he turned to the shelf and started to pick up more potions and antidotes, realising that there really wasn't anything more specific than the instruction he'd been given. The shopkeeper flinched at the sight of Kai's frustrated glare when the three of them took their items to the checkout. Logically, he thought, a general purpose medicine for all venom and poison was absurd and impossible. Or maybe it was more absurd that he didn't think that such a thing was possible in this world, given everything else he'd already seen. In his brooding, he didn't notice the shopkeeper shuffle away from him in terror as his moody expression darkened and his glare intensified.

* * *

The girl didn't take Tyson, Max, Daichi and Ray very far. The Pokémon Centre was just down an arterial road branching off the main street and only a block away. It was a three storey white building with a bright red roof, just as Mari had described it. There was a short, paved path cutting straight through a lawn with a hedge fence that led up to automatic glass doors. The arch pediment bore a white, stylised Pokéball and the words 'Pokémon Centre' in large block lettering. It really was hard to miss.

Daichi smacked himself in the forehead. "Now that I think about it, I did see that roof from the main street."

"Yeah, me too," Max said. "Man, I feel kind of stupid now."

"There's no point putting yourselves down," Ray told them, "we're all new at this and we've never been here before."

"Good point," Tyson remarked. "Thanks for showing us the way," he said to the flower girl. Then he dragged Ray down the path by the arm. "Now let's get this fixed up before it gets infected."

Daichi followed them, giving the girl a quick goodbye but Max stayed back and gave her his brightest smile.

"Thanks a lot, we might have been wandering around for ages if not for you," he said.

"You wouldn't! This place is really close. You'd have found your way eventually."

"Either way, this really helps us out. Did I get your name?"

"Oh! Um, I'm Katie."

"I'm Max, nice to meet you. So, since Ray's totally going to be fine and it still isn't that late, do you want to hang out tonight?"

Katie giggled. "Well, I still have to finish closing up my stall but okay."

"I can help you with that too if you want."

"I'll manage," Katie smiled.

"Cool. Shall I meet you at your stall in twenty minutes or…"

Before Max could finish that thought, Tyson grabbed him by the ear and dragged him to the Pokémon Centre. "You're not going anywhere tonight!"

Katie laughed and waved at them. "Bye Max."

"I'll be here for a while so you'll know where to find me," Max called back to her.

"My stall is open at the night market tomorrow," Katie replied. "See you soon."

Tyson waved back to her and then shoved Max through the doors roughly. "Can you please try not to be a shameless flirt?"

"At what point was I shamelessly flirting?" Max responded.

The interior of the Pokémon Centre was an open and brightly lit space but the colour scheme may have left something to be desired. Everything was pink and white. Anything that wasn't pink or white was red (and the occasional blue object). The lobby was clean and organized and looked like a lounge with couches and armchairs, a TV, some booths near the window and a row of PCs against a wall. A small hallway on the right side of the room jutted to the back and led to the surgery and intensive care ward, while a staircase disappeared to the second floor on the left. At the reception desk a redheaded nurse with bouncy curls was working on a computer with a pink Pokémon at her side looking on.

"Excuse me miss," Daichi said, walking up to the desk. "Are you a nurse?"

"I am," she replied. "Call me Joy. What can I do for you?"

"We have a patient." Tyson dragged Ray to the desk.

"Oh my, that scratch looks like it hurt," Nurse Joy said, eyeing the wound worriedly, "but I can help you with that. Please come this way."

Nurse Joy took Ray down the hallway and ushered him behind a white curtain where a room for triage assessment was set up. She told Ray to sit down and poked her head around the wall to tell the others: "If you kids are travellers Chansey can put you down for a bed, she'll just need to see your trainer ID." She nodded towards her Pokémon, which was pink and egg-shaped and had an egg nestled in her pouch. She happily jumped onto the chair Nurse Joy had previously occupied and started to work the computer. "Sorry that Chansey isn't as adept as I am at using the computer. She's a bit slow but can do bookings just fine."

Joy disappeared into the hall and shut the curtain screening the triage room. The bladers put their trainer ID cards on the desk. Tyson stared at the Pokémon slowly navigating the computer files and got out his Pokédex for the information:_ "Chansey, the egg Pokémon. Chansey is a rare and elusive Pokémon that is said to bring happiness to those who manage to catch one. It lays several eggs a day. The eggs are rich in nutrients and extremely delicious."_

"I guess that's cool," Tyson muttered, not really all that impressed by the Pokédex's explanation. He was more intrigued by what she was doing right now. "And it can use a computer to check us into a room! I've never even seen a chimpanzee do that and they're supposed to be the smartest animal on Earth or something."

"Yeah, even I don't know how to use a computer," Daichi said, leaning over the desk to watch the screen as Chansey worked. "There are three more of us, by the way. Can you find some room for them too?" he asked her.

"Only more proof that you are, indeed, a monkey," Tyson ribbed.

"Hey!"

"How do we pay for this place, though?" Max said, taking his wallet out of his pocket and flipping through his receipts and notes. "I only have yen and a few American dollars."

Tyson and Daichi stared at him and then slowly turned to look at each other. "Yeah…" Tyson muttered. "I can see how that would be a problem."

They started going through their pockets, trying to find more money to put towards their accommodation. Chansey suddenly let out a joyful cry, letting them know that she'd finished the booking and leaned over to access a drawer. She found two sets of keys and threw them onto the desk in front of the bladers.

"Thanks, Chansey," Tyson said sheepishly, "but, uh… we kinda have a problem. We might need to wait until the others get here."

Chansey just shook her head (the way her head could move on its own despite being one with her entire body looked extremely creepy to the beybladers) and hopped off her chair. She skipped off to the surgery section of the ground floor to take inventory and paid no more mind to the visitors. The bladers looked at each other.

"Okay, now what?"

"Maybe they don't ask for payment until afterwards?" Max guessed, picking up the keys. They heard someone call to them from the doors and turned around. Mari, Kai and Hilary had returned, carrying their supplies in paper bags from the Pokémart. "Wow, great timing."

"Did you guys get us a room already?" Hilary asked.

"We did," Tyson replied, "but we just realised that we probably don't have enough money to pay for it."

"Uh-oh," Hilary muttered.

Mari just laughed. "Pay for it? Guess since this is your first time in a Pokémon Centre, should let you know that everything in here is free."

"Free?" the bladers and Hilary echoed.

"Yep. Pokémon Centres are managed by the Pokémon League and the government. Don't have to worry about paying for meals, boarding or even surgery."

"You're kidding," Max said, dumbstruck by that information.

Tyson's jaw dropped. "Free food?"

"Totally!" Mari nodded.

"All better!" Nurse Joy chimed, leading Ray back into the lobby with his scratches cleaned and covered in iodine. "Just keep your face dry for the next day or two and they'll heal perfectly. And how are the rest of you?"

"Hi, we just got here," Hilary said. She pointed at the boys who were already at the counter, "and we're with them. Whoa, Ray, what happened to your face?"

"He was scratched by a Lombre," Daichi answered for him, the grin on his face proving that he found this funnier than it really was.

"A Lombre?"

"It's a long story, I can fill you in later," Ray said, planning for 'later' to be some time so far in the future that everyone will have forgotten and he wouldn't have to tell.

Nurse Joy checked the bookings on the computer. "Well that's good, Chansey booked enough beds for all of you. But newcomers still have to show me some trainer ID."

Hilary and Mari presented their ID cards. Kai couldn't reach the ID card in his bag while holding Togepi so he showed her the ID screen on his Pokédex.

"Thank-you," Joy said, inputting the information on the computer. "Welcome to the Oldale Pokémon Centre. Enjoy your stay!"

* * *

**A/N: sorry, this was really long and not much happens but Pokémarts and Centres are kind of a thing that they have to go through as part of compulsory PokéWorld initation.** Good news is that starting next chapter they'll start doing much more exciting things (likerunningintobadguys), albeit still having one-shot mircoadventures every now and again. The road ahead will be fun.


	8. Knocks in the Night

**Knocks in the Night**

After getting their dinner (free meals for Pokémon trainers – of course Tyson and Daichi had to go all out) Nurse Joy happily agreed to take them on a tour of the Pokémon Centre. It was a wonderful all-purpose facility for trainers and travellers; not only was it a clinic, a vetinary hospital, a hostel and a bed-and-breakfast, it also had a large backyard that had been transformed into a training yard for Pokémon. There was a battlefield, an obstacle course and a jungle gym. To the side of the yard was a sandpit with a children's playground. Nurse Joy had to return to her duties but before that informed them that the Pokémon Centre shut its lights off at ten o'clock and closed the training yard at nine.

The yard was empty so the group had a free run of the facility, which they gladly took to. Mari made the suggestion that they should practise Pokémon battles by taking turns on the battlefield and the beybladers were only slightly disappointed to hear that a half-serious training battle couldn't be counted towards their official battle records. They figured that it may be for the best anyway, since for Max, Ray and Hilary this was their first attempt at giving their Pokémon instructions in a battle situation. That was a disadvantage in experience for them.

They rotated on the battlefield quite randomly and while one pair occupied it the others found ways to utilise the rest of the equipment, not necessarily for Pokémon training. While Kai and Daichi were pitting Poochyena and Geodude against each other, Tyson and Max discovered what Mari referred to as a 'rolling pool'. It was a semi-spherical object set into the ground. Their first instinct upon coming across it was to let their beyblades rip right into the middle of it. It was only after Mari had wandered over and gawked at the intense display of flying sparks and grinding attack rings that she informed them of its intended use: for practising rolling moves such as something called 'Rollout'. Tyson and Max had no idea what that was and were fairly certain that none of their Pokémon could do that so they continued using it as a beydish anyway. Ray also found a way to use a low ropes course as a balancing exercise for his beyblade and was surprised to see Treecko jump onto the course and attempt to keep up with Drigger. In the meantime, Hilary was beside a tree with flags hanging out of its branches, discovering that her Ralts could make them ripple, shudder and sway haphazardly with her Confusion attack.

The hours flew by while everyone was having fun. Before she knew it, Hilary noticed that the clock above the back doors of the Pokémon Centre had struck a quarter to nine and she was quick to remind everyone of the curfews. The others picked up their beyblades and their Pokémon and left the yard, gathering together at the doors.

"I wish they didn't have this stupid rule," Daichi complained. "I want to keep going!" Geodude voiced his agreement and waved his fists happily.

"You're probably just running on adrenalin. This was a lot of fun," Ray replied, pocketing Drigger as Treecko climbed onto his shoulder. "I know I want to spend more time with Treecko. It was interesting to see the way he actually moves – I can already see this having big implications for how to train him and battle with him. This is way different to practising blading."

"Speaking of which, it's pretty cool that we actually managed to find a beydish," Tyson added. "So we can even practise for the upcoming championships. I guess this world isn't as uncool as I thought."

"It's a rolling pool and it's for Pokémon," Mari pouted.

"It looked like a beydish to me and that's all that matters."

"What?" Hilary groaned, looking out onto the battlefield. "Those two still aren't finished?"

Max and Kai were still going at their sparring match but it looked like Kai clearly had the upper hand. Magikarp tackled Mudkip again and the little blue Pokémon was knocked back… again. He sat up and shook his head. Max sighed. He tried giving his Mudkip several orders but the Pokémon wouldn't listen. He even used his Pokédex to check the kinds of moves Mudkip knew.

"I wouldn't worry," Mari said to Hilary, "it looks like this will be over soon."

"Flail!" Kai commanded. His Magikarp launched herself forward and began to slap Mudkip silly with her tail.

"Hey, Mudkip! Defend yourself! Use Tail Whip… or something…"

Mudkip ignored that order too and just curled up on the ground as Magikarp splashed around on top of him, turning a normally useless attacked into something slightly painful.

Kai brushed some bangs out of his face and ordered Magikarp to finish off with another tackle. Mudkip was knocked back into Max's legs but he wasn't knocked out yet. Max knelt down to pick up his Pokémon.

"Man, Kai, you're so mean!"

"I'm not 'mean'. You're just incompetent."

"Hey!"

"I meant that."

"Look, just because you're Mr. Perfect-"

"It doesn't have anything to do with being perfect," Kai snapped. "Every time you order your Pokémon to do something you hesitate and sound uncertain. As a result, Mudkip is confused and nervous."

"Well, actually… I feel kind of silly…" Max admitted.

"Then get over it. Even Daichi can give his Geodude orders with confidence."

"All I'm saying is that if you've got everything so under control, why are you insisting on training so hard? Seriously, you've done more sparring with Magikarp than anyone else has done with any of their Pokémon and there's a beydish over there that's been missing you all night."

"You know it's not actually a beydish," Kai retorted. He returned Magikarp to her Pokéball and stared at the ball. "This Pokémon is weak. I have to make her evolve somehow."

"You want to turn her into Gyarados?" Max asked, voice shaking a little. Kai had asked about Magikarp's evolved form over dinner and Mari had gone into great detail about the creature (or at least the mythology surrounding it). Apparently it was a huge dragon-like creature feared all over the seas because of its frightening power and ferocious nature. "Why would you want that so soon?"

Kai shot him a hard stare. "How will I be able to win at Pokémon battles if my Pokémon are weak?"

"Well, okay… if you want it that way." Max sighed and returned Mudkip to his Pokéball.

"Wow, drama," Mari muttered under her breath.

"Hey, are you guys going to come inside?" Hilary called across the battlefield. "The lights out here are going to go out in about ten minutes! Hurry up!"

"You don't have to be a bossy old hag about it," Daichi said casually.

Hilary rounded on him. "What did you call me!?"

The other bladers sighed and shook their heads as Daichi turned tail and ran back into the building with Hilary hot on his heels. Mari watched them zoom out of sight and blinked in bewilderment.

"You'll get used to seeing them like this," Tyson assured her, shrugging as if this occurrence was ordinary. "So, if there's nothing else we might as well just hit the hay for the night."

The others agreed and filed into the building. Unbeknownst to them as they retired to their rooms, they had been watched by a shady duo hiding in the bushes. They lowered their specialised high-tech binoculars. One of them was female with lavender hair that was all combed over to one side and ended with a carefully styled curl. It was held together with a lot of hairspray and a blue headband that had a cartoonish skull pinned onto it. She wore a black and white striped dress, black gloves and knee-high blue boots with white stripes at the top. Her partner was a boy with frizzy orange hair. He tried as best he could to keep it held back with bobby pins and a thin headband but it just all stuck out the back. He wore a black and white striped shirt with a black sleeveless jacket and blue trousers. His gloves and shoes were both black. Beside them a little, purple, cat-like Pokémon looked on worriedly.

"Alright! This is the chance we've been waiting for!" the girl hissed. She darted over to a khaki bag and rummaged through it until she found was she had been looking for – a minicomputer the size of a mobile phone. She downloaded the images from her binoculars and saved them. "Finally! Got a lock on that little girl! After searching for all this time revenge can finally be exacted!"

The boy yawned. "CTFD, girl. Remember what happened in Johto? We can't just jump into this even with your phenomenal enthusiasm…"

"We're not going to jump into this!" the girl snapped back. "You're going to use your brains to figure out how we're going to get back at her and nab at least one Pokémon while I work on creating this report!"

"At least one…?" the boy raised an eyebrow. "Wow… actually setting yourself a realistic goal?"

"Shut up! If we don't conjure some promising results for our boss this time around we're going to be fired! I don't wanna be fired!"

The little, purple Pokémon purred thoughtfully.

"K..." the boy said with a sigh. "Obvious solution in this case is to disrupt group dynamics… aim at a weak link. P sure we've already seen who… Great that he's got a cool Pokémon…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just tell me how we're gonna get it."

* * *

Max sat down on the floor next to the bunk he'd chosen and sighed. He didn't have any pyjamas so he had to sleep in his shirt and boxers but the Pokémon Centre wasn't nearly as cold as the great outdoors. Sleeping under the stars had been fun and all but it was nice to know that every now and again there would be a modern comfort like the Pokémon Centre. He recalled from summers spent on camps in America that camping out for long periods of time was often really hard. He turned to the bed. Mudkip had been let out for bedtime so he lay curled up on Max's pillow.

"Why can't I get this down like everyone else," Max murmured to himself. He reached into the pockets of his pants and pulled out his beyblade. Draciel caught the moonbeams shining through the open window and gleamed. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. I mean, I didn't know anything about Pokémon to start with… but neither did anyone else. Maybe I just picked the wrong creature." He sighed. "Maybe Kai's right and it's something wrong with me."

He set Draciel on the floor and moved to sit on his bed. The bed was a basic double bunk but it wasn't terrible quality. These things could be very comfortable after days of roughing it. Mudkip sighed in his sleep. Max petted him gently and stared at the smooth, blue skin contemplatively.

"Wow, what a cute Pokémon," said an unfamiliar female voice. "Mind if we take it off your incompetent hands?"

Max looked up at the two strangers who'd suddenly appeared in the room he was sharing with Tyson, Daichi and Kai. Perched on the male's shoulder was a giant, purple moth with green wings.

"Ah! W-what are you doing in here?!" Max exclaimed loudly.

"Hey, shhh…" the male of the pair said. "Inconsiderate to the others staying here…"

"Hey, Tyson! Kai! Wake up!" Max shouted, wondering why Kai – who wasn't a deep sleeper at all – hadn't already woken up.

"Give up! They'll be lost in dreamy-land for a while longer," the female said with a smirk. Max looked past them at the bunk bed shared by Tyson and Kai. They were both fast asleep with Togepi curled up beside Kai's pillow. They were covered in a thin veil of blue powder. He could guess that Daichi above him was also covered with it.

"Ready to join them?" the female mocked. The giant moth lifted itself off her companion's shoulder and hovered in front of Max. It beat its wings, blowing some of the blue powder into his face. As he inhaled it he began to get drowsy very quickly until he fell into a deep sleep.

Ray knocked on the door of his teammates' room. "Hello? Why are you guys yelling?" he asked, still half asleep. Mari and Hilary poked their heads out of their room and blinked blearily.

"What's happening?" Mari asked.

"I don't know. They were yelling about something. Maybe we should check on them." Ray yawned and opened the door. "Eh…? Where's Max?"

"He's gone?" Hilary asked. She and Mari darted out of their room and pushed past Ray. "He's gone! Tyson! Kai, Daichi! Get up!" she yelled, going straight up to Tyson and slapping him on the face. He didn't wake up but contact with his skin left a blue powder on Hilary's hand.

"Huh? What's this?" she muttered, bringing it to her nose to sniff it.

"Hilary, I don't think it's a good idea to breathe that in," Ray warned.

Too late. Hilary slumped and let her head fall onto the side of Tyson's bed. She was fast asleep.

"Whoa, I've never seen sleeping concoction that powerful before. What is that?"

"Sleep Powder," Mari easily diagnosed. "Some Pokémon can create it somewhere on or in their bodies."

"Then do you think somebody used a Pokémon to do this?" Ray replied. "And if so, why?"

Mari shrugged. "Weird. You guys are new to this dimension so it doesn't make sense that anyone would be out to get you."

"We need to find whoever did this and get some answers but we'll need to track them fast before they get too far away to chase."

Mari nodded seriously. "I'll get Woofy."

* * *

Something felt wrong. Max was roused from sleep by a very uncomfortable feeling. He opened his eyes and stared at a fire still blazing in the dark… upside down. He tried to yell out and squirmed a bit, only to realize that he was tied up, gagged and suspended from a tree branch by his feet. He looked over the upside down campsite. The two strangers who had kidnapped him were fast asleep around it and his Pokémon was sobbing fearfully somewhere he couldn't see. He tried to lift his head against gravity and look at the knots binding his feet and hands. It didn't look like he'd be able to undo them from his position. He relaxed and just hung there, unsure of what to do and feeling utterly defeated.

He was startled by a rustle in the bushes behind him. He turned around to the best of his ability and saw Ray crawl out from under a bush beside the tree he was tied up in. Ray put a finger to his lips and got up to rip the duct tape off and pull out the wad of cloth in his mouth. Ray's Treecko climbed up the tree and down the rope, working on the knots around Max's hands.

"I can't tell you how glad I am to see you, Ray," Max whispered.

"You can give Mari some of the thanks," Ray replied. "After all, she's the one who managed to get us here."

There was another rustle in the bush and Max looked over his shoulder just as Mari and Woofy crawled underneath it. Mari smiled at him. Treecko had already finished undoing the knot around his hands and climbed up to work on his feet.

"Max, who are those people?" Ray asked, looking over to the duo sleeping around the fire.

"I have no idea," Max said, "but I think they came to steal my Pokémon. Mari, do you know them?"

"Never seen them before in my life," Mari said. "But I'm not surprised. There are some criminals out there who steal Pokémon but usually just rare Pokémon to sell for big bucks."

"Is Mudkip rare?"

"In the wild, somewhat. But it's bred for beginner trainers so frequently it wouldn't be worth the trouble of stealing one from a trainer."

Max suddenly fell from the tree and landed on Ray. Treecko cringed and shrunk back on the rope he was hanging from sheepishly. Both bladers hit the ground with a heavy thud and a cry of alarm. Mari clamped a hand over her mouth as if it was her who had made the sound and looked warily at the camp. The first to stir was the woman. She sat up in her sleeping bag wearily and rubbed her eyes. She nudged the man beside her.

"Hey, Jamie, did you hear something weird?"

The man also awoke and pushed himself up on his elbows. He glanced around the site. It wasn't enough time for Ray, Max and Mari to duck back into the bushes and hide. "Hey!" he exclaimed. The little purple Pokémon sleeping beside them woke up at the loud exclamation. The duo leaped to their feet.

"What do you guys think you're doing trying to escape like that?!" the woman shrieked.

"Busted…" Max muttered.

Mari stood up straight, pointing directly at the duo. "You can't stop us from escaping! Don't even know why you wanted to kidnap one of us in the first place but we won't lose to you!"

The woman ground her teeth and clenched her fists, looking very much like she was about to throw a tantrum. The man patted her on the shoulder. "Now, now, girl, don't work yourself up. We've still got the Pokémon…"

"You mean that one?" Ray asked, pointing to a bush that Mari's Pokémon was standing by. Woofy held a branch in his jaws that had been snapped off to reveal a cage with Max's Mudkip inside.

"Oh, man… if I'd known you guys had a Growlithe…" the man drawled.

"We're not letting you stop us from getting away with this!" the woman exclaimed, taking a Pokéball and throwing it up in the air. "Zangoose! I choose you!" The Pokémon that emerged looked quite fierce. It was white with long ears and a streak of orange across its furry body and its fingers had long claws on the end.

The man snickered. "Technically, Zangoose is the only one you can choose…"

The woman growled. "Shut up and help me beat the lights out of these guys!"

The boy sighed, taking a Pokéball out of his pocket. "Fine… Spinda…" He released his Pokémon, a red and white rabbit-like creature that looked like it was already knocked out. It swayed from side to side as though it couldn't balance.

"Looks like we have to fight," Ray muttered. He called up to his Pokémon: "Treecko, let's go." Treecko nodded and jumped down from the rope.

"Wait, Ray," Mari exclaimed, using a hand signal to order her Pokémon to get between Treecko and the other two Pokémon. "These people are probably more experienced in battle than you and Treecko are. Let me and Woofy handle this."

"You can't do this by yourselves," Ray argued.

"Enough!" the woman screamed. "Zangoose, use your Slash attack!"

Zangoose charged forward with its claws spread. Mari ordered her Growlithe to do a Quick Attack, ducking under Zangoose's claws and swiftly tackling it in the stomach. Zangoose sailed into the air. The Man used the opportunity to have Spinda sneak up underneath Zangoose with Rapid Spin, hitting Woofy head on. The puppy yelped as he was thrown back. Ray ordered Treecko to do a sliding tackle, slamming into Spinda's foot and overbalancing it. It landed face flat on the ground.

"Ray, told you to stay out of this!" Mari hissed at him. "Your Pokémon is too weak."

"It's not all about strength in this battle," Ray argued. "So your Pokémon may be the only one on par with the opponent but if you try to do this on your own their tag team tactics will just run circles around you. You need a partner."

"A partner weaker than the opponent isn't much use. They'll take advantage of you."

"How about we raise the stakes a little," the woman suggested, licking her lips. "We win the battle we win your Pokémon. Sound fair?"

"No!" Mari said.

"Zangoose, use Feint Attack on that little grass-type."

"Spinda, use Sand Attack," the man said.

Spinda wobbled to its feet to start doing some more spinning, kicking the dirt into Woofy and Treecko's faces. Zangoose darted to the left of Treecko but stopped abruptly and seemed to disappear. Unable to see very well, Treecko leaned to prepare for an attack on the left. Zangoose appeared on the right looking supernaturally dark and fierce and slammed into Treecko. Treecko bounced and skidded on the ground towards Ray's feet. He gasped. Mari clenched her teeth and ordered Woofy to use Ember.

Meanwhile, Max slipped by the battle unnoticed and ducked under the bush where Mudkip was hidden. Mudkip looked up at him hopefully but didn't seem excited to see him. Max picked up a decent sized rock and began to bash the lock on the cage.

"Don't worry, I'll get you out of here," he muttered. The clang of the rock was outdone by the screech of Zangoose after getting hit with Woofy's Bite attack. Spinda had made itself confused, giving Treecko the room to use Pound on it. Spinda stumbled and then wobbled right back and returned the attack. The little green Pokémon was barely conscious. Ray decided to return him to his Pokéball.

The lock broke open. Mudkip smiled and Max beamed in return, picking up his little blue Pokémon. A ferocious feline growl interrupted their reunion. Max and Mudkip turned. A little purple cat Pokémon was glaring at them with puffed fur. It turned around to alert its masters but Max grabbed it first.

Woofy yelped when Zangoose hit him with Crush Claw and was volleyed back by Spinda's Dizzy Punch. Mari chewed the fingernails on one hand and dug into her pocket for a berry. She tossed the Oran berry to Woofy, who took it gratefully but it only made the pup feel a little better. Suddenly, a little blue Pokémon jumped onto the field.

"Use Water Gun!" Max shouted. Mudkip squirted a thin jet of water into Zangoose's face, startling it more than damaging it. Mari quickly ordered Woofy to use Ember, followed by Take Down. Zangoose was knocked so far back it crashed into its owner.

"Why you…!" the woman snarled. "How'd you get your Pokémon out without us knowing?! And where's Purrloin?!"

"Oh, you mean that one?" Max said, pointing to the bushes where the little purple Pokémon was looking sullen in a cage that was closed tightly with rope.

The ginger man clenched his teeth and commanded Spinda to use Rapid Spin. Max gave Mudkip the order to use Mud Slap. He wet a little patch of dirt and then used his tail to fling it. The attack was easily flung away by the spinning but Woofy's Ember managed to not only stop Spinda but set it on fire too. It ran back to its owner in a panic.

"Okay, time to wind this up. Woofy, use Take Down!"

The Growlithe took a huge run up at the group. The woman returned a knocked-out Zangoose quickly and the man took out another Pokéball while his Spinda rolled around in the dirt to put the fire out. He threw it high, bringing out his only other Pokémon.

"Dustox, Stun Spore," the man ordered. Dustox beat its wings to let loose a cloud of golden powder in Woofy's face. The Growlithe skidded to a halt, the powder stinging his eyes.

"Hey! That's the Pokémon that knocked me out," Max exclaimed, pointing to the green-winged insect.

"They used a Dustox?" Mari replied. She set her jaw. "Doesn't matter, this'll be fine. Means that Woofy definitely has a type advantage. Use Ember, Woofy."

Woofy whimpered. His eyes still stung and his muscles had become stiff.

"What happened to him?" Ray asked.

"Paralysed," Mari muttered, more to herself. She checked her pockets to see what remedy she could find but Oran was the only berry she'd thought to bring. "Haven't got anything that could help right now. Woofy, you'll have to hold on. Try using Ember."

Woofy just whined, as if he had lost the will to do anything as well as the strength. The man ordered his Dustox to tackle the weakened Pokémon. Mudkip used Water Gun on Max's command, soaking Dustox's fragile wings. He followed that up with Tackle. Dustox hovered erratically. It was dazed and needed to flap hard just to stay in the air.

"Guess this is my only chance," the woman whispered, reaching under the skirt of her dress. With a quick flick she launched a lasso onto the battlefield, looping the noose around Growlithe's neck. She pulled sharply, tugging Woofy off his feet.

"What? No!" Mari shrieked.

"Dustox, use String Shot," the man snapped.

Max and Mudkip both gasped, caught unaware when Dustox spat a stream of fine, white silk from its mouth. Mudkip started running to dodge it. Max told it to use Water Gun again, water-logging it even further, and then Mud Slap. Mudkip turned around and kicked some of the mud on the ground into Dustox, aiming particularly for its face. The woman picked up the paralysed Growlithe and made a dash for it. The man returned his Pokémon to their Pokéballs and followed suit, grabbing the cage with their Purrloin along the way.

"Hey! Get back here!" Ray yelled after them.

"They took my Pokémon!" Mari cried, starting to run after them as they disappeared into the forest. Ray, Max and Mudkip followed but all of them were stopped by a sudden gust of wind. An odd contraption rose out from behind the treetops; it was a hot air balloon basket but instead of a balloon it was powered by an array of propellers.

"I don't get this. After you went to all this trouble to try and steal my Pokémon why didn't you?" Max asked.

"Ha! Knew you wouldn't expect this!" the woman laughed. "Why would we want a weak, barely trained Pokémon like yours? We only kidnapped you and your Pokémon – the weakest – so that we could lure out strongest in your team and hopefully get them at a time when they're less prepared!"

Mari hung her head. "Damn it! I'm an idiot!"

"Now we've got this pretty strong Growlithe, IOH," the man added.

"No way! You can't take Woofy! And who are you anyway?"

"Oh! We didn't give you the memo? Prepare to be dazzled, girlie!" the woman tittered. "_Prepare for trouble_!"

"_And make it double_," the man recited.

"I have the feeling something really annoying is about to happen," Ray mumbled. Max nodded.

"_To protect the world from devastation_."

"_To unite all peoples within our nations_."

"_To denounce the evils of truth and woe_."

"_To extend our reach to the depths below_."

"_Jemima_!"

"_Jamie_…"

"_Team Aqua, diving deep at the speed of light_!"

"_Surrender now or prepare to fight_."

Purrloin even chimed in at the end to finish.

Max faced palmed. Ray had an uncomfortable look on his face. "That was embarrassing just to listen to."

"But you can forget that last part because we've already won!" Jemima cackled as Jamie steered the flying machine away. "Toodle-doo, ya wimps!"

They eventually disappeared from sight in the dark sky. Mari stared at them and when they were gone she just stared into nothing. She fell to her knees.

"No way… that didn't happen, right?" she muttered.

Ray swallowed and put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, next time we see them we'll get Woofy back."

Mari didn't seem to be listening. She put her head in her hands and her shoulders began to shake with sobs. "How could that have even happened? Thought my Pokémon would have been strong enough… he should have been strong enough… why did this even happen?"

Ray and Max cast uneasy glances at each other. "There's no use in blaming either yourself or your Pokémon," Ray advised. "What's done is done and the only thing you can do now is learn from your mistakes and make a plan to get Woofy back in the future."

"No, you don't understand!" Mari barked at him, standing up and glaring at him. She pushed past him and began the walk back to the Pokémon Centre. "Let's go back already. We got the blondie and his Pokémon."

Max gaped at her. "Hey!"

She paid no mind and kept walking. Max and Ray looked at each other, both worried for their friend and resigned themselves to just keeping up with her quietly.

* * *

**A/N: I'm not even sorry... except for Jamie and Jemima's shameless and pretty embarrassing emulation of Team Rocket, I'm kind of sorry for that. Unfortunately, this happens often but they do it because they have reasons** (I'm not even joking, there is a legit reason). This adventure continues over the next few chapters, so stay tuned!


	9. Morning Misadventures

**Morning Misadventures**

As soon as they returned to the Pokémon Centre, Ray and Max roused Nurse Joy to explain what had happened to the others who were still asleep, leaving out what had happened afterwards. Her reaction at first was to gasp in horror and lament about who would do such a thing before she explained that all they would need to do was dab the sleeping powder off with a damp cloth and then just wait for the effect to wear off. She gave them a few clean towels and a bucket of water and took Ray's Treecko to be treated.

So, Max and Ray began to laboriously clean the Sleep Powder off their friends. Mari seemed to have disappeared.

"I hope your Treecko's gonna be okay," Max said with a yawn, trying to start a conversation in hopes that that would keep him awake long enough to finish.

"I think he'll be fine," Ray replied. "Nurse Joy said so. I wonder where Mari went."

Max dunked his cloth in the bucket to rinse off some of the powder before getting back to work on Daichi's face. "Do you think we should look for her?"

"No, let her be for now. She seems to be taking it hard."

Max just nodded but he couldn't help being worried. She'd warned them when they first started out about the dangers of wild Pokémon and he hoped she was thinking rationally enough to take her own advice.

* * *

Hilary grumbled as Tyson and Daichi began shovelling their third helpings of egg into their mouths. She picked at her own tray of eggs, bacon, mushroom, baked beans and toast, feeling her appetite diminish the longer she stayed around the boys. She growled in irritation and slammed her hands and cutlery down on the table. "Why can't you two just eat like human beings?!" she yelled at them.

They both sent her a confused look. "Chill, Hilary," Tyson replied with his mouth full. "What's your problem? These eggs are delicious and since breakfast here only lasts until nine thirty I'm gonna make the most of it."

Hilary's eyebrow twitched. "Nowhere in that explanation did I find express permission to behave like a starving animal."

She turned to look around the bright pink lobby. Kai had risen early and finished his breakfast before Tyson and Daichi had even sat down. The last time she had spotted him he was going back to his room to wake up his Pokémon and feed them. Nurse Joy's gentle Pokémon, Chansey, had brought over some bowls of some generic-looking Pokémon food – one type looked like dog food and the other looked like cinnamon sticks – but their Pokémon seemed to enjoy it.

"I wonder if Max and Ray are still asleep," Daichi piped up after finally swallowing and taking a breath. "They're gonna miss their breakfast if they don't come down soon. And what happened to Mari?"

Hilary shook her head. "I don't know where Mari went. She was gone when I woke up. I can't believe Max and Ray are still sleeping, though. Especially Ray. I thought he was the early-riser type like Kai."

Kai had returned to the lobby just in time to hear his name mentioned. He glanced at Hilary but otherwise didn't pay any mind to the conversation. With his Togepi and a small bottle of a special Pokémon milk formula he sat down on a couch and turned on the television, seeing that it was currently on a morning show and an interviewer live at a stadium-type place was talking to a woman with light brown hair and wearing what seemed to be more of a costume than an outfit. She was dressed to exactly match the Pokémon standing beside her: a tall creature that looked like a man with a bird's head and bird claws for hands. Kai didn't pay much attention to the TV; he was too busy concentrating on making Togepi eat.

Eventually, Hilary decided that if she continued to watch Tyson and Daichi compete to see who could stuff the most food in their stomachs she would never finish her breakfast so she picked up her tray and went to sit next to Kai. This was a sight she would much rather witness: Kai handfeeding his baby Pokémon with a bottle. She covered her mouth with both hands to muffle her squeals. Kai barely acknowledged her so she turned to face the television, starting to eat her breakfast.

"- you are, indeed, a very inspiring performer," said the interviewer – a charismatic-looking, purple-haired man wearing a loudly coloured suit. "And finally, we've brought some questions sent to us by fans via e-mail. Meowth has the mailbag right here!"

To Hilary's surprise, a cream and brown cat with a charm on its forehead jumped in front of the camera. It was wearing a yellow bowtie matching the interviewer's and carried a colourful bag that seemed to be full of mail. However, the most shocking thing was what it did next:

"Meow! These are the topics that everyone wants to know!" it said and Hilary dropped her fork and her jaw at the sight of a talking cat. Meowth picked a letter from the bag at random and unfolded the paper. "First question comes from Linda of Olivine City: 'how are you able to consistently stay on top in such tough competition?' Guess we're wondering if there's some kind of trick to it." Holy shit. Hilary could hardly contain herself. That cat could _read_.

The interviewee giggled. "Oh no, there's no trick at all. Of course there's all of the technical stuff like choreography; it helps to have a good eye for a tasteful appeal combo. Definitely make sure that your Pokémon are well-groomed and in tip-top condition before you enter any contest. But most importantly you have to have a great relationship with your Pokémon, one in which you respect and trust them and they trust and respect you to the max. And have confidence. Coordinators with confidence will bring confident Pokémon to the hall."

"This doesn't sound like it has anything to do with Pokémon battling," Hilary muttered. She'd thought that it might due to the large building in the background so the conversation confused her a bit (it was also a little confusing as to why a Pokémon battle facility would adorn the front of the building with a giant ribbon tied in a bow but Hilary just thought that she didn't know the culture).

Finally Ray and Max made their way down the stairs. They both yawned widely and Max hadn't even combed his hair properly. Chansey greeted them and happily hurried off to fetch both of them a breakfast tray.

"Yo Ray, Max!" Tyson called out across the room. "We were wondering if you guys had died in your sleep or something. Don't you know there's only ten minutes left before they stop serving food?"

Max's stomach grumbled. "I could go for breakfast. What's on the menu?"

"Eggs, bacon, toast, that kind of stuff," Tyson replied around his fourth helping. "You should try it! I thought that the food at this place would be kinda crap since it's free – I mean, who's ever heard of cheap food that tasted good? – but these are the best eggs ever!"

"Really? I can't wait to try it," Ray said.

Chansey placed two trays with a generous serving of food on the table for Ray and Max. They smiled, not expecting the service, and thanked the pink Pokémon. Chansey beamed and skipped away to attend to her other duties. As she left, Ray noticed an empty pouch.

"Um…" he said, "didn't that Pokémon have an egg last night?"

Max sat down across from Tyson and Daichi and popped a bit of egg in his mouth. His eyes immediately lit up. "Wow! These really are the best eggs ever! What did they do to make it taste so good?"

"Guys, do know where the eggs came from?" Ray asked.

"What are you? Stupid?" Daichi retorted. "Everyone knows that eggs come from chickens."

"But Daichi, this is a world with completely different animals. I don't think there are any chickens."

"Well, where do you think they came from?" Max said while squeezing the mustard bottle over his breakfast.

"That Pokémon was carrying an egg in its pouch last night, now the egg is gone."

"So maybe it hatched?" Tyson guessed.

"Then where's the baby?"

"Somewhere else?"

"Are you saying you think that Chansey laid the eggs we're eating?" Max said. Ray nodded.

"Really? Are you sure its eggs are even edible?" Daichi wondered. Tyson looked in his Pokédex. It reported:

"_Chansey lays nutritionally excellent eggs on an everyday basis. The eggs are so delicious they are easily and eagerly devoured by even those who have lost their appetite._"

"Okay, so maybe it did," Tyson said with a shrug, putting his Pokédex away. "But that doesn't change the fact that these eggs are the bomb!"

"I don't think I'm going to eat them," Ray decided, bringing his tray closer to him and scooping up some mushrooms.

"Why not? They're really good," Max tried to persuade him. "Trust me, you'll regret this."

"No," Ray said with finality. "It's too weird."

"Why?"

"Because it's a Pokémon! Eating an egg that was carried around in something's pouch for a while seems weird."

"You don't object to eating eggs in the real world, why stop now?" Tyson argued.

"Eggs in our world come from chickens! It's normal." Ray looked back down at his tray. "And where do they get bacon in a world that doesn't have pigs?"

The other three shrugged.

"I'll eat your meat if you don't want it," Daichi offered. He didn't even wait for a response before he started stealing food from Ray's tray.

"You didn't have this problem with the food before," Max pointed out. "Why now?"

"I just didn't really think about until now but the more time I spend in this world the more I realise that everything is completely strange and I somehow can't bring myself to think of Pokémon as food." Ray sighed. "Well, anyway, has anyone seen Mari?"

Tyson and Daichi shook their heads. Tyson finally stopped eating and swallowed so that he could think. "Actually, I haven't seen her since last night. There's no way she should miss out on a breakfast this good!"

Ray and Max cast worried glances at each other. "I think we should go and look for her," Max asserted.

Ray nodded in agreement this time. Tyson and Daichi paused and stared at the two across from them.

"Did something happen?" Tyson asked.

"Yeah, there's no point in hiding it," Ray said. He and Max explained to Tyson and Daichi what had happened the night before, right from the sleeping powder to Jemima and Jamie. By the end of it, Tyson and Daichi almost had their jaws on the table in front of them.

"People can use Pokémon to do that?" Daichi exclaimed.

"Apparently so," Ray replied. "Although from the vibe that I picked up, it seems that mainstream morality is normally against using Pokémon attacks on people."

"And you think someone who steals other people's pets is all for 'mainstream morality'?" Tyson said. "Mari is probably really ticked off about this. What if she's run off to try and catch them or something dumb like that?"

"Honestly, that's what I'm afraid of too," Max confessed.

"We need to find her fast," Tyson declared, wolfing down the last of his breakfast and standing up. "Everyone get ready, we're forming a search party. Kai!"

"No," Kai answered. He was now a bit interested in the TV but still had most of his attention on Togepi. Hilary was completely captured by what was now on the screen that looked nothing like the kind of Pokémon battle Mari had gushed about. Instead, the Pokémon merely danced and pranced around a stage showing off well-timed moves and their general good condition.

"Fine then! Hilary-"

"Have fun doing whatever it is you're doing," she said.

"But-"

"Bye." Hilary waved over her shoulder without looking away from the TV.

Tyson grumbled. "Okay, then it's just us. Four is a good enough number for a search party. We'll grab our beyblades-"

"And our Pokémon," Max added, getting a sigh from Tyson.

"Okay, we'll get our beyblades and our Pokémon and split up. Max and I will look outside of town, Ray and Daichi can look around town. We'll meet up at the marketplace once around lunchtime and then again before sunset. Is this a plan or is this a plan?"

Ray and Max nodded.

"Hey, I wanna go out of town too," Daichi complained.

"Daichi! Just do what you're told. There's too much at stake here."

Daichi grumbled his agreement with the hasty plan and the four of them got up to prepare for their search.

* * *

The two groups left as soon as they were fully equipped and split up. Ray and Daichi headed towards the busiest part of the town while Tyson and Max looked for the shortest route out of town. They stopped to ask for directions a few times. It seemed that a few early risers had seen people heading north of the town at the crack of dawn. The bladers were a bit confused by that but figured it was their best shot. Anyone going out of town could let them know if Mari had gone their way as well.

Meanwhile, Daichi and Ray wandered the streets of the town. The town was quiet even in the busiest sections. Forty minutes after the plan had been put into action Daichi was still grumbling and walked beside Ray with his face scrunched up and his arms crossed tightly. Ray was doing an excellent job of ignoring his companion's bad mood and kept his eyes peeled for any sign of their friend.

"This is stupid," Daichi muttered. "Why don't I get to go out into the forest? That's my element! Tyson knows that. I bet he's doing this on purpose."

"Daichi, your whining isn't helpful," Ray admonished.

"But how are we supposed to search, exactly? This place isn't that big and we've already been around most of it."

Ray stopped and folded his arms. He put a finger to his chin and stared at the pavement, deep in thought. Daichi stared at him bemusedly. "Maybe… maybe there was a clue last night. Jamie and Jemima said they were in a team: Team Aqua."

"So they're a tag team?" Daichi asked.

"I think they meant something bigger," Ray guessed. "They were up to no good so I'm thinking that 'Team Aqua' could refer to an organised crime syndicate. At the very least, they're a group that has some kind of name for itself. Assuming that it's a name people recognise, maybe if we drop that name around town people will know something."

"And this helps us find Mari… how?"

"Look, I'm still only guessing but Mari was really upset about losing Woofy. I would bet money that she left to try and find him and maybe even get revenge, so she must be looking for Team Aqua too."

"Oh! Okay!" Daichi said, regarding Ray with awe. "That's really smart. Who should we ask first?"

Ray pointed to a café. A policewoman with blue hair and a Growlithe at her side was exiting the establishment (probably after a nice morning coffee) and was about to get on her white motorbike to start patrol. "If we ask an officer then we can gauge how much of a problem this Team Aqua is."

The Growlithe jumped into a sidecar on the bike and the officer was changing out her hat for her helmet when the bladers approached her. She saw them and gave them a friendly smile. "Hello, haven't seen your faces before," she said congenially. "New in town? Passing through?"

"Just passing through," Ray answered, "but unfortunately, we've had some major trouble."

Her expression changed to a more serious one and she stopped what she was doing completely. "What's the situation?"

"Our friend went missing after something that happened last night." Ray recounted last night's activities, including the battle with Jamie and Jemima. "The thieves said they were from 'Team Aqua'. Can you tell us anything about them?"

"Team Aqua?" the policewoman said, looking confused. "Impossible. Team Aqua was a big crime syndicate here in Hoenn but they disbanded decades ago."

Ray and Daichi exchanged glances. "Is there any possibility that they rebuilt?" Ray asked. "I'm absolutely certain that they mentioned Team Aqua."

"There's that possibility. Also possible that they're just using the name as a fear mongering tactic. Either way, this is a serious issue. Can you boys show me where they were last seen? And by the way, what are your names?"

"I'm Ray and this is Daichi," Ray replied, showing her his Pokédex's ID screen. Daichi followed suit.

"Name's Jenny." She returned her Growlithe to its Pokéball. "Take a seat and let's ride."

* * *

The road heading north wasn't so much a road as it was a part of the forest that just happened to not have trees. There was a dirt road, deeply grooved by tyres that wound through what would have otherwise been a wider path of packed earth. However, the route wasn't used very often and the tall grass had claimed most of it back.

"Geez, think of all the snakes that could be living in here," Max muttered as they travelled up this road.

"How do we know that snakes even exist in this world?" Tyson questioned facetiously.

"Who knows but I would be willing to bet that snakes are a universal constant across all worlds and dimensions," Max replied, equally as sarcastically as Tyson.

"Man, this place is boring."

After leaving the town behind them they had seen nothing and no one for almost an hour. They had it on good authority that they could make it from the town to the banks of the river and back again by nightfall (albeit with no idea what river was being mentioned) and hoped that if Mari had gone this way that that was as far as she'd gone.

"I thought that people had come through here. Why haven't we found anyone yet?"

"From the sounds of it, they got a massive head start," Max reasoned. "It could be that we just need to catch up with them."

"Hey, wait," Tyson said, pausing to shade his eyes and look ahead. "I think I found them."

The uneven grass was much shorter around some of the trees. It was at the base of one of these thick-trunked trees that the bladers spotted two people crouched over something. They were a man and a woman wearing matching outfits of black and white striped t-shirts, black gloves and shoes, blue bandannas and blue wide leg trousers. It looked like a uniform in the way the outfits conformed to each other. The black-haired man was bent over a large sheet of paper that appeared to be a map of sorts while the woman – a redhead with matching eyes – was taking notes in what looked like a journal.

"Hey!" Tyson called out to them. They both jumped and turned their heads so fast it could have given them whiplash. The woman snapped her journal shut and the man quickly folded up his map and tucked it into his pants, hiding it under his shirt. Max narrowed his eyes slightly and couldn't help but notice how suspicious their actions were. Not to mention how similarly they were dressed to Jemima and Jamie. They stood up as the bladers approached and smiled innocently enough. However, Max still couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about them.

"Sup, kids?" the man said pleasantly but his eyes had the cold glare of someone who just wanted them to go away. "Lose your way?"

"No, we're looking for someone," Tyson replied. "Did you see a ginger-haired girl go through here this morning? She's wearing a yellow shirt and has her hair tied up all the time."

"Hardly anyone goes through here," the woman replied in a nasally voice. "Route 103 is a road to nowhere unless you _really_ like fishing."

"So I guess you really like fishing," Max said coolly, raising an eyebrow.

"'Scuse me?"

"Max, what are you saying?" Tyson said. "Do these guys look like fishermen to you?"

"Well if you're not fishermen, why are you guys out here if this road really doesn't go anywhere?" Max inquired.

"Wouldn't you like to know!" the man snapped immaturely.

"Actually, we do," Max retorted crossly. "Our friend is missing and she might have come down this way."

"Cool it, Max. They probably don't know anything," Tyson said.

"Yeah, what he said," the man nodded. "Sorry 'bout your friend, lil' dude but we ain't seen no one on this road today."

"Then can I ask you something else?" Max pressed, dropping his suspicious and angered expression for a happier façade. "Have you guys ever heard of Team Aqua? I hear that they've been hanging around these parts lately."

The pair flinched. Tyson was confused and had a right mind to reprimand his friend but the adults reacted before he could say anything by pulling out Pokéballs and expanding them.

"How'd you know 'bout the Team?" the man growled.

"Um… what?" Max and Tyson said in unison, blinking blankly.

"Whaddya mean 'what?'!" Tyson yelled at Max. "I thought you were going somewhere with this!"

"I thought 'Team Aqua' was just the tag team name for Jemima and Jamie!" Max claimed.

"Che! Should have known Jamie and Jemima would be the muddle-Duckletts to ruin everything," the woman huffed. "Since you found out about us being back in action, we can't risk you running back to the cops before we're finished here. Corphish, go!"

"Get 'em, Poliwhirl!"

They threw their Pokéballs to release a little, red lobster-like Pokémon and an odd, blue, round creature with the eyes of a frog and a swirl on its belly that had arms and legs like a person. Tyson quickly opened his Pokédex to find out just what they were.

"_Poliwhirl, the tadpole Pokémon. Its two legs are well developed, allowing it to live in or out of water. When out of water, it constantly sweats to keep its body slimy. Because of this greasy covering, it can easily slip and slide out of the clutches of an enemy in battle."_

"_Corphish, the ruffian Pokémon. They were imported to various regions as pets. It is a very hardy creature that will quickly proliferate, even in polluted streams. __It has no likes or dislikes when it comes to food - it will eat anything."_

"According to the Pokédex, they're both water-types," Tyson muttered. "If only Ray were here…"

"Corphish, use Bubble!"

Max and Tyson both screamed and dived out of the way when Corphish shot a stream of bubbles at them. The bubbles lingered in the air, floating slowly and the bladers felt a little stupid. That is, until the bubbles burst with an audible _pop_ and they felt the small shockwaves of energy being released.

"Whoa, these guys aren't messing around," Max said.

"If they're going to attack then we have to defend ourselves," Tyson said, getting up and releasing Torchic. The chick ruffled his feathers and glared at his opponents.

Max released Mudkip alongside Torchic. The amphibian took a look at the stronger opponents he was facing and whimpered. "Hey, Mudkip, don't worry. I got your back if anything bad happens here."

Mudkip glanced back at his trainer and then faced the battle, still nervous about fighting but feeling a little bit braver thanks to Max's encouragement. At the drop of an order from the Team Aqua grunts, Corphish and Poliwhirl charged and the battle began.

* * *

**A/N: continuing in the next chapter yet again and our heroes seem to keep getting in trouble. Please leave a review! I would really love some feedback** because sometimes as I'm writing and proofreading I laugh and I'm not sure if I'm laughing because I'm just a dork who laughs at her own jokes or because it's actually funny.


End file.
